The coal question; an enquiry concerning the progress of the Nation, and the probable exhaustion of our coal-mines

B 444627

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jjAAFR OF FROF ES80R s J EVONS, , ,

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~TtJts 'WWh great regret that we have to record the death
o£ Professor Jevons. He was drowned in the sea between
I St. Leonard’s and . Bexhill, on . Sunday morning, while
^ ■ n a.nd fnmily I'i.kI teen staying at

THE

COAL QUESTION

On the 13th Aug., at St. Leonard's-ouSea, drowned, while bathlDg, I
WILLIAM STANLEY JEVONS. LL.D., F.K.S., &c., of The Chest-
nuts, Hampstead, in the 47th year of hie age.

- ~ O * VT71EX. .!

AN INQUIRY £ 4 V 4' ' • _

CONCERNING THE PROGRESS OF THE NATION,
AND THE

PROBABLE EXHAUSTION OF OUR COAL-MINES

WT STANLEY

JEVONS, M.A.

FEI.LOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON ;

<-OBDEN PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN OWENS COLLEGE, M ANC H Es IJ , I ,

SECOXD ED1TI0X, REVISED.

ionium :

j\I acmillan AND o 0.

I 860 .

. “ The progressive state is in reality the cheerful and the
hearty state to all the different orders of the society; the
stationary is dull ; the declining melancholy.”

Adam Smith.

great regret that we have to record the dentil
of Professor Jevons. He was drowned in the sea between
St. Leonard’s and Bcxhill, on Sunday morning, while
bathing. He and his wife and family bad - been staying
Cliff-houeo, Galley-hill for the last five weeks, and their
sojourn there was to have terminated to-day. The inquest
was held at Bexhill on Monday afternoon, before Mr.
Charles Sheppard, the Coroner for the Rape of
Hastings. It appeared that tbe deceased arid Mrs. Jen
with thoir children, were walking on the beach on Sunday!
morning. The Professor had a day or two before said he '
should liko to bathe, but Mrs. Jevons begged him not to do
so, as he had not been in good bodily health. He left them
on tbe beach, and Mrs. Jevons thought he was going up to I
the house. Sho asked him to sond the servant down, and |
the servout came shortly afterwards. About
a half afterwards Mrs. Jevons heard that a gentlemaa|
named Jevons was drowned. In her opinion he was not
man likely to commit suicide. Ha was, in fact,
as happy as any one could be. William Spark;
a school-teacher, gave evidence to the effect, that
shortly after 11 o’clock, four boy6 came to him
the cliff, and said they thought a mac was drowning.
Running down to the beach, witness 6aw a body floating
about 40 yards out. It was going about like a cork, back-
wards and forwards. The tide was on the ebb and tbe
body was gradually floating Beaward. He weot into tin
to try and get the body out but was unsuccessful. Wit
though that that spot was a doDgerons one for bathers
especially at high w ater. It was indeed about the worst
spot that one could select for bathing. Another witness
said there was a nasty swell in shore, but no breakers
outside. It was a dangerous sea except to good swim-
mers. The body was recovered and was taken to tha
coast-guard station close by. IVm. Haigh, at whose house
the deceased was staying, said the Professor
swimmer. The jury returned a verdictof accidental death
by drowning.

The deceased, William Stanley Jevons, was tbe son
an iron merchant at Livurpool, and was born there on
1st of September. 1833. His mother, who wrote po
■nd edited the “ Sacred Offering,” was a daughter
'William Roscoe, the author of the well known biogra-
phies of Lorenzo do Mo.bci and Leo X. His early educa-
as recoivod at the High School of the Mechanics’ I osti-
i, Liverpool, thea under the rule of the late Dr. 11'. B.
Hodg9on. At the age of 18 he entered University Col-
lege, London, and matriculated with honours in botany and
hemistry. From 18d3 to 1838, or from his 18th to
23d year, ho was assayor to tbe Australian Royal Mint,
Sydney, a post conferred upon him at the instance of Mr.
Graham, of the Mint in London. He gave up liis leis
scientific pursuits, and the results of some thoughtful
observations of tbo meteorology of the colony
bodiod ia his " Data concerning the Olimato of Australia
and l\ew Zealand.” RoturaiDg to England,
with his studies at University Oollego, won various dis-
tinctions, and took tbo degree of M.A. In 1SC6, after be-
coming Fellow of bis college, he was made Pro-
fessor of Logic and] Philosophy and Cobden Lecturer|
Political Economy at Owen's College, Manchester.
In tho meantime he had done much to establish
:putu as a thinker by publishing his trea-
tises on the value of gold, the theory of political
economy, pure logic or tho logic of quality, and the coal
question. Tho last of these works, which pointed to the
conclusion that our coal supplies would eventually stop e
ted many keen discussions, and a Royal Commission w:
appointed to investigate the question it raised. But it w;
not until after his connexion with Owen's College w.
'formed that Jevons did justice to himself. In 1880 ho
brought out bis “ Substitution of Similars tbo True I’ri
plo of Roasouing,” in 187U the “ Elementary Lessons
Logic ; ” in 1871, the *' Theory of Political Economy
1874, the " Principles of Science, ” and at a later period,

11 Money and tbe Mechanism of Exchange.” lu 181
having been made Professor of Political Economy
■ ty College, London. he reunauisbed
his appointment at .Owen's Oollogo. Last year”
up academic work altogether, in order to devote h:
solf exclusively to literature. During tho last ten yc
his life he was made an F.R.S. nncl an LL.D. cf Edin-
burgh, His chief works were tho “ Principles of Sciei
and tho “ Thoory of Political Economy,” which
body his ripest theories on tbe fundamental doctrines of
economics and login. In tho former a sy6tom of logical
forenco akin to that of Boole is elaborated. ’Whate
may bo thought cf Professor Jovuns’s views, it is :
bio that his work is distinguished by far-reaching
formation, a firm grasp of the principles he sought to
illustrate, and unusual vigour and closeness of reasoning.
He did much to render the study of logic more popular,
England from tlio reproach (uttered some years
ago by 'Walter BagohotJ that “ even tho little attention
paid in this country to abstract economics
diverted.”

3SS5, Jir • ^^3:

Smlr’onS, ladho™

neural wrn Mr, T Worses. The

,v r-ouf ■

«?«*»['• auo^

Worthington,. Mr. Ru.sc, ,o, and Mr'

Richa

• mountings, and the plato bore tho folluwJ

ElVs l ' Cr ^ tl0 p :_ , VV iHirtin .Stanley .levons, M.A., LE D

u,o it ,xy itvs

irnbcr ol lmaulil ul wreathe. l„ the Cemetery Chapel
nul an ,.|, I)r0(inale a(lllref , H 0 „ ^

ceased Professor, who had

JiarS I

Dr. Sadler

tjiampstrad for k

i’HE PRISONS QHApT

On the motion of tne Earl of Roseber y , tETs'^iir' was
read a second time.

HYDE PARK CORNER.

The MARQUIS of AILESBURY asked Her Majesty’s
Government whether it was seriously intended to carry
into effect the alterations proposed by Her Majesty’s First
Commissioner of Works at ilyde Park-comer ; and, if so,
when those alterations might be expected to be com-
menced.

The EARL of MILLTOWN said that he desired to sup-
plement the question of the noble marquis by asking
whether, in the event of these proposed improvements
being effected, the Government would avail themselves of
the opportunity thus afforded to throw open the roadway
down Constitution-hill to the public. He asserted that if

elusion of the public from the roadway in question would
be more than erer a grievance. He was satisfied that

this proposal would meet with the approval of Her
Majesty, who throughout herlongand happy reign had ever
considered the convenience of her subjects. (Hear, hear.)

LORD SuDELEY said that he bad to state that imme-
diately the vote was passed by the other House steps were
at once taken to commence carrying out the great improve-
ment at Hyde Park-corner. (Hear, hear.) The first thing
that had to be done was to remove the reservoir from its
present position to a suitable place in Hyde Park ; and
teuders had already been invited for carrying this out.
(Hear, hear.) The First Commissioner had not yet decided
whether the arch could be moved iu ono block on rollers,

• waether it would be necessary to pull it down and
rebuild it, Out it was hoped that this matter would be
settled in a few days. (Hear, hear.) The Government
hoped that tho cutting off the corner of Green-park
would entirely remove the congestion of traffic, which
had for so long been a standing nuisance to that part of
the metropolis, and they believed that of the numerous
schemes which had been suggested, this formation of a
targe '■ place ” would be the boldest and happiest solution
of a somewhat difficult problem. (Hear, hear.) Ee could
not give the noble marquis an exact date when the works
would be completed, but lie could assure him that, the
money having boon ngreed tu by Parliament, and the
Metropolitan Board of ‘Works and all parties having given
their consent, everything would bo done to expedite the
completing of the improvements as soon as possible.
(Hear, hear.) In reply to the noble lord opposite, he had
to say that it was not proposed at present to open Oonsti-
tution-hill to the public. T'ho question had not "been under
n.-ideration. i Hear, hear.)

The DUKE of CAMBRIDGE said that he was very glad
that what was now proposed was to bo carried out, but he
is convinced that the Mock in the traffic at Hyde Park-
corner would never be got rid of until a subway bad been
mado from Hamilton-place, under Piccadilly to Gro venor-
place. Ho was aware that the construction of such a sub-
iv would be a very expensive matter, and that all sorts
Df difficulties connected with water and gas pipes and
sewers would have to be encountered ; but, in his opinion,
these difficulties ought to be overcome, because the block
t Hyde Park-corner was really a disgrace to a great city
like this. (Hear, hear.)

The EARL of REDESDALE asked whether it would not
be pnssiblo to place the statue of tho Duke of Wellington
a pedestal opposite to Apsloy-house.

LORD SUDELEY said that the First Commissioner had
received a great many representations respecting what
should bo done with the statue of the Duke of Wellington.
Among many conllict.ing opinions, he has not yet decided
what would be best to bo doDe, but if tho arch were
obliged to be pulled down then be would take care that
iperirnents were made to see how tho Duke would look
n a pedestal in tho middle of the proposed “ place ” or
Bimilar position. If the arch were not pulled dowu, but
were rolled into its new position without having to tako
down the statue, then it was probable it would bo better
to leave it alone. (Hear, hear.) The matter was, however,
Still under consideration. (Hear, hear.)

TRIPOLI.

EARL DE LA WARR, in rising to call the attention
of Her Majesty’s Government to the position of British
subjects in Tripoli, and to ask whether any provision had
been made to protect them in case of emergency, said
that while matters of the gravest importance in Egypt
re engaging the attention of Her Majesty’s Govern ment,
he should be very unwilling to bring under publio notice
any question which would embarrass them in the course
which they hnd thought it right to adopt. At tho same
time it was impossible to pass over in silence events which
were of frequent occurrence, and which arose, it could not
be doubted, from an incrocsing irriUtion among the
Mussulman population of North Africa and elsewhere.
Thoro was evidence — abundant ovideuce — that the un-
happy state of affairs in Egypt was not confined to that
country only ; it had shown itself in Syria, and in other
Asiatic Mussulman Slates ; it had shown itself in
Tripoli ; and wherever there was a Christain and Mns-

outbreak thorowas a dormant feeling of irritation which
might, at any moment result in acts of violence. As
regarded Tripoli, to which ho desired to ask tbo attention
of Her Majesty’s Government, ho had boon assured upon
reliable authority that tho state of fooling there at tho
present moment w, is ono wbicli causod groat anxiety and
alarm. British subjects who had been able to do so had
quittod tho couutry, and many of tho poorer class of tho
Maltose wero being maintained in the Island of Terba,
near the coast of Tripoli, at the expense, he believed, of
the Maltese Government. Now, ho did not think they
rardwfT to tlwUs''Typ r AMu ejunm,.af tho* imUm =+* a
awn up with care and piloted through tho Uouso
Commons with dexterity. The result is that it ‘
,a become law without an alteration, except in ^
e length of possession permitted to electric
'hting companies before local authorities can
|y them up. The figures were necessarily J
ntative, and the alteration was conceded without
acuity. The chief value of tho measure lies in the
ct that it distinctly lays down a now principle
the guidance of tho Legislature in granting ^
nopolii.s, and ono which cannot hut alloct future
.posals for buying up, in the interest of tlio '
l blic, those which alroady exist. Mr. Fawcett's
reel Tost Bill was also managed with so much
motion that all sorious opposition m
rliamerut was averted. Nothing now stands _

NG OASES. /

Pacf /V^

PROFESSOR JEVONS DROWNfiDi

Professor Jevons was drowned on Monday at Bexhill,
Sussex, wbne battling An u^uest was held yesterday
morning. The deceased’s body w«e seen floating in the
water by a labourer, who brought it ashore and found
life extinct. The clothes of the deceased were lying oa
the beach. The sea is dangerous at that part for persons
who are not good swimmers, especially at higu water
The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death.”
Professor William Stanley Jevons. M.A., F R S , wa-
born in 1835 He was appointed P- ofeaaor of Bogie at.
Owens College, Manchester, in 1866, and Professor of
Political Economy in University College in 1876.

Another account says: — Professor Jevons was spending
the season with his wife and family at Bexhill. He lef'.
Mrs Jevon 3 and the children on the sands, and witbio
an hour bis body was seen floating in the water near a
dangerous spot called Galley hill. It is supposed tha’
Professor Jevons went there to bathe, his clothes, wish a
towel, being found on the beach. He was an expert
swimmer, but the shore in this local! y falls, and the tide,
which has a strong sac, must have carried him under
and suffocated him before he could recover self control.
—At an inquest held on the body at the Queen’s Head
Hotel, Bexhill, Mrs Jevons stated that her husband,
who waB aged 46, had expressed a desire to bathe, but
sbe urged him not to do so as ha was not in good health.
When her husband left her on Sunday morning hs said
nothing about bathing . — Samuel Watson, a ooaastguarde
man, deposed that the spot where the body was touad
was about the worst that could be selected for bathing.
—The jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death by
drowning.”

The melanoholy death of Professor Jevons has oreatel
a painful mpresBion at Bexhill, where he was well
known, at Manchester, and elsewhere. After the in
quest, the body of deceased was removed to the Chest
nuts, Hampstead, the London residence of the family,
where Mrs Jevons and her children *»o ts reai nu.

conjectured o> toe friends o» tdrofe^aor Javans thv,
he was tbmpted by the genial weather to take a bach
and that the water acted upon bis heart, whioh was
known to be somewhat weak, and that becoming uncon-
scious be was drowned.

. Chester dist* o - 1 ~ . .ended

Mr Rose bad said it wa- Jaeccntinuc-a expenditure wl
kept the dividend down, and he went on to speak <
spirited policy of encroachment. When any
on* aide the room taxed him with a spir
policy o! encroachment, he tried to pin i
person, and ask b»m to point out in what part of]
system that policy was followed. He poll

out that the Great Northern was now in m
districts originally held by the Midland Company,
shareholders would follow bis example, and keep tl
capital in the Midland Company, instead of eubsc it
to other companies, those companies would not ba i
to encroach upon the Midland district, (Laughter,)
to the suggestion that the estimated receipts :
expenditure should be given every week, ha was no*
favour of it. Such estimates must ba fallacious, and
did not like to encourage outside people on the St
Exchange or anywhere else to speeu) te more than t
now did with Midland shares. (Applause.)

The resolution was adopted without dissent.

On the motion of the Chairman, seconded by
Deputy -Chairman, the usual dividend resolution
adopted.

The Chairman then moved—

That the director be authorised to borrow on mortgage, under
pow*rn of “The Midland Railway (Additional Powers) Act, 11
"TLe Loudon and North-Western and Midland Railway Oompa
Act, 1831,” and T£e Cheshire Lines Act, 1831,” any sum or sua
money not exceeding in the whole £636 CCQ, and that it be raise
the creation and issue of stock to a corresponding amount, t£
termed '* Midland Railway Debenture Stock,” instead of borro>
the same.

Tbia was seconded by the Deputy Chairman,
carried unanimously.

Tbe Ohaibman then moved a resolution to the ef
that, such an amount of Five per Cent, Consolidated 1
petual Preference Stock of the Midland Company she
be raised as would yield an annual dividend equal to
amount of the annual dividend payable u
tbe oi dinary shares of tbe Wolverhamp
and Wall sail Railway Company, and the i*
of such stock to the proprietors of such ordin
shares in exchange for and in proportion to the ehi
be M by them respectively.

This was seconded by the Deputy- Chairman,
carried without dissent,

Mr Harrison moved tbe re-election of the Audit C

PEE FACE.

I am desirous of prefixing to the second edition
of the following work a few explanations which
may tend to prevent misapprehension of its pur-
pose and conclusions.

: The expression “exhaustion of our coal mines,”

states the subject in the briefest form, hut is
sure to convey erroneous notions to those who
do not reflect upon the long series of changes
in our industrial condition which must result
from the gradual deepening of our coal mines

" and the increased price of fuel. Many persons
perhaps entertain a vague notion that some day
our coal seams will be found emptied to the
bottom, and swept clean like a coal-cellar. Our
fires and furnaces, they think, will then be
suddenly extinguished, and cold and darkness
will he left to reign over a depopulated country.
It is almost needless to say, however, that our

b

vi Preface.

mines are literally inexhaustible. W e cannot
get to the bottom of them ; and though we may
some clay have to pay dear for fuel, it will
never be positively wanting.

I have occasionally spoken in the following
pages of “the end,” of the “instability of our
position,” and so forth. When considered in
connexion with the context, or with expres-
sions and qualifications in other parts of the
volume, it will he obvious that I mean not the
end or overturn of the nation, but the end
of the present progressive condition of the
kingdom. If there be a few expressions which
go beyond this, I should regard them as specu-
lative only, and should not maintain them as
an essential part of the conclusions.

Renewed reflection has convinced me that
my main position is only too strong and true.
It is simply that we cannot long progress as
we are now doing. I give the usual scientific
reasons for .supposing that coal must confer
mighty influence and advantages upon its rich
possessor, and I show that we now use much
more of this invaluable aid than all other coun-
tries put together. But it is impossible we

Preface.

vii

should long maintain so singular a position ;
not only must we meet some limit within our
own country, hut we must witness the coal
produce of other countries approximating to our
own, and ultimately passing it.

At a future time, then, we shall hare influ-
ences acting against us which are now acting
strongly with us. We may even then retain
no inconsiderable share of the world’s trade,
hut it is impossible that we should go on
expanding as we are now doing. Our motion
must he reduced to rest, and it is to this change
my attention is directed. How long we may
exist in a stationary condition I, for one, should
never attempt to conjecture. The question here
treated regards the length of time that- we may
go on rising, and the height of prosperity and
wealth to which we may attain. Tew will
doubt, I think, after examining the subject, that
we cannot long rise as we are now doing.

Even when the question is thus narrowed I
know there will he no want of opponents.
Some rather hasty thinkers will at once cut
the ground from under me, and say that they
never supposed we should long progress as we

b 2

Preface.

viii

are doing, nor do they desire it. I wonld make
two remarks in answer.

Firstly, have they taken time to think what
is involved in bringing a great and growing
nation to a stand ? It is easy to set a boulder
rolling on the mountain-side ; it is perilous to
try to stop it. It is just such an adverse change
in the rate of progress of a nation which is
galling and perilous. Since we began to deve-
lop the general use of coal, about a century
ago, we have become accustomed to an almost
y ea rly expansion of trade and employment.
Within the last twenty years everything has
tended to intensify our prosperity, and the
results are seen in the extraordinary facts con-
cerning the prevalence of marriage, which I
have explained in pp. 197 — 200, and to which
I should wish to draw special attention. It
is not difficult to see, then, that we must either
maintain the expansion of our trade and em-
ployment, or else witness a sore pressure of
population and a great exodus of our people.

The fact is, that many of my opponents simply
concede the point I am endeavouring to ]wove
without foreseeing the results, and without,

Preface. ix

again, giving any reasons in support of their
position.

Secondly, I do not know why this nation
should not go on rising to a pitch of greatness
as inconceivable now as our present position
would have been inconceivable a century ago. I
believe that our industrial and political genius
and energy, used with honesty, are equal to any-
thing. It is only our gross material resources
which are limited. Here is a definite cause why
we cannot always advance.

Other opponents bring a more subtle objec-
tion. They say that the coal we use affords no
measure of our industry. At a future time,
instead of exporting coal, or crude iron, we
may produce elaborate and artistic commodities
depending less on the use of coal than the skill
and taste of the workman. This change is one
which I anticipated (see p. 347). It would con-
stitute a radical change in our industry. We
have no peculiar monopoly in art, and skill, and
science as we now have in coal. That by art
and handicraft manufactures we might maintain
a moderate trade is not to be denied, hut all
notions of manufacturing and maritime supre-

X

Preface.

macy must then he relinquished. Those persons
very much mistake the power of coal, and steam,
and iron, who think that it is now fully felt and
exhibited ; it will he almost indefinitely greater
in future years than it now is. Science points
to this conclusion, and common observation con-
firms it. These opponents, then, likewise concede
what I am trying to show, without feeling how
much they concede. They do not seem to know
which is the sharp edge of the argument.

A further class of opponents feel the growing
power of coal, but repose upon the notion that
economy in its use will rescue us. If coal be-
come twice as dear as it is, hut our engines are
made to produce twice as much result with the
same coal, the cost of steam-power will remain as
before. These opponents, however, overlook two
prime points of the subject. They forget that
economy of fuel leads to a great increase of
consumption, as shown in the chapter on the
subject ; and, secondly, they forget that other
nations can use improved engines as well as our-
selves, so that our comparative position will not
be much improved.

It is true that where fuel is cheap it is wasted,

Preface. xi

and where it is dear it is economised. The finest
engines are those in Cornwall, or in steam-vessels
plying in distant parts of the ocean. It is credibly
stated, too, that a manfacturer often spends no
more in fuel where it is dear than where it is cheap.
But persons will commit a great oversight here
if they overlook the cost of an improved and
complicated engine, which both in its first cost, ,
and its maintenance, is higher than that of aj •
simple one. The question is one of capital against {
current expenditure. It iswell known that nothing ''
so presses upon trade as the necessity for a large
capital expenditure ; it is so much more risked,
so much more to pay interest on, and so much
more abstracted from the trading capital. The
fact is, that a wasteful engine pays better where “
coals are cheap than a more perfect' but costly
engine. Bourne, in his “ Treatise on the Steam-—.
Engine,” expressly recommends a simple and
Avasteful engine Avhere coals are cheap.

The state of the matter is as follows : — "Where
coal is dear, but there are other reasons for re-
quiring motive poAver, elaborate engines may be
profitably used, and may partly reduce the cost
of the poAver.

xii Preface.

But if coal be dear in one place and cheap in
another, motive power will necessarily he cheaper
where coal is cheap, because there the option of
using either simple or perfect engines is enjoyed.
It is needless to say that any improvement of the
engine which does not make it more costly will
readily be adopted, especially by an enterprising
and ingenious people like the Americans.

I take it, therefore, that if there be any strong
cause exclusive of the possession of coal which
will tend to keep manufactures here, economy of
fuel and a large employment of capital may
neutralise in some degree the increased cost of
motive power. But so far as cheap fuel and
power is the exciting cause of manufactures,
these must pass to where fuel is cheapest,
especially when it is in the hands of persons as
energetic and ingenious as ourselves.

Finally, I may mention the argument of Mr.
Yivian, that the art of coal mining will advance
so that coal may be drawn from great depths
without any material increase of cost. The very
moderate rise of price as yet experienced, appa-
rently supports this view, and for my own part
I entertain no doubt that a mine might, if

Preface.

Xlll

necessary, be driven to the depth of 5,000 feet.
The cost at which it must he done, however, is
quite another matter. The expenditure on the
shaft increases in a far higher ratio than its
depth ; the influence of this expenditure is more
than can be readily estimated, because it is
risked in the first instance, and in not a few
cases is wholly lost ; and not only must th0
capital itself be repaid, but considerable amounts
of compound and simple interest must be met, in j
order that the undertaking shall be profitable.
Were the depth of mines so slight an incon-
venience as Mr. Vivian would make it appear, I
think we should have more deej) mines. It is
now forty years since the Monkwearmouth Pit
was commenced, and I believe that only one
deeper pit has since been undertaken, that at
Dukinfield, seventeen years ago. We cannot
wonder that there are so few deep pits, when we
consider that it required twenty years’ labour to
complete the Monkwearmouth pit, in consequence
of the serious obstacles encountered (see p. S3).
The Dukinfield Deep Pit, begun in June, 18-19,
was more fortunate, and reached the expected
coal at a depth of 2,150 feet in March, 1S59.

xiv Preface.

Having now candidly mentioned and discussed
the strongest objections brought against the
views stated in the following work, I may fairly
ask the reader that he will treat these views with
candour, not separating any statement from its
qualifications and conditions. I have some
reason to complain that this has not been done
hitherto. A correspondent of the Times and
Mining Journal has represented it as a conse-
quence of my suppositions that there would, in
1961, be a population of 576 millions of people
in this country, a statement wholly without
foundation in the following pages.

One journal, the (London) Examiner,' has so
far misrepresented me, that the editorial writer,
after expressly stating that he has read the book
with care, says : — “ Professor Jevons shrinks
from endorsing the 1,000 feet theory, and stops
short at 2,500 ; hut why there precisely, rather
than anywhere else, he does not tell us. All
we can gather from him on the subject is, that
Avhen we get to that depth a complete supply of
foreign coals will come in from Pennsylvania
and elsewhere,” If the above he compared with

jbJxaiinnf r, May !*(->(>.

Preface.

xv

wliat I have really said on the subjects on p. 57,
and in chapter xiii., it will be seen that my state-
ments are represented as the direct opposite of
what they are. The whole article is full of
almost equal misrepresentations.

I have been surprised to find how far the views
expressed in some of the following chapters are
merely an explicit statement of those long enter-
tained by men of great eminence. The manner
in wdiich Mr. Mill mentioned this work in his
remarkable speech on the National Debt, 1 was in
the highest degree gratifying. I have found
indeed, that most of what I said concerning the
National Debt was unconsciously derived from
Mr. Mill’s own works. I have repeated it un-
changed in this edition, with the exception of
adding references. The fact is that no writer can
approach the subject of Political Economy with-
out falling into the deepest obligations to Mr.
Mill, and it is as impossible as it is needless
always to specify what we owe to a writer of
such great eminence, and such wide - spread
influence.

Sir John Herschel has most kindly expressed

1 House of Commons, April 17th, 1666.

XVI

Preface.

a general concurrence in my views, and has even
said that this work contained “ a mass of con-
siderations, that as I read them seemed an echo
of what I have long thought and felt about
our present commercial progress.”

As regards the supremacy of coal as a source
of heat and power, and the impossibility of
finding a substitute, I have again only inter-
preted the opinions of Professor Tyndall. He has
kindly allowed me to extract the following from
a recent letter with which he favoured me : —

“ I see no prospect of any substitute being
found for coal, as a source of motive power.
We have, it is true, our winds and streams and
tides ; and we have the beams of the sun. But
j these are common to all the world. We cannot
' .make head against a nation which, in addition to
I- those sources of power, possesses the power of
pcoal. We may enjoy a multiple of their physical
Pand intellectual energy, and still be unable to
hold our own against a people which possesses
abundance of coal ; and we should have, in my
opinion, no chance whatever in a race with a
nation which, in addition to abundant coal, has
energy and intelligence approximately equal to
our own.

Preface.

xvn

“It is no new thing for me to affirm in my
public lectures that the destiny of this nation is
not in the hands of its statesmen but in those of
its coal-owners ; and that while the orators of
St. Stephen’s are unconscious of the fact, the
very lifeblood of this country is flowing away.”
An ri in the following passage Professor Tyndall
has lately summed up the sources of power: —

“ Wherever two atoms capable of uniting to-
gether by their mutual attractions exist sepa-
rately, they form a store of potential energy.
Thus our woods, forests, and coal-fields on the
one hand, and our atmospheric oxygen on the
other, constitute a vast store of energy of this
hind — vast, hut far from infinite. We have,
besides our coal-fields, bodies in the metallic
condition more or less sparsely distributed in the
earth’s crust. These bodies can be oxydised, and
hence are, so far as they go, stores of potential
energy. But the attractions of the great mass of
the earth’s crust are already satisfied, and from
them no further energy can possibly be obtained.
Ages ago the elementary constituents of our rocks
clashed together and produced the motion of
heat, which was taken up by the ether and

xviii Preface.

carried away through stellar space. It is lost
for ever as far as we are concerned. In those
ages the hot conflict of carbon, oxygen, and
calcium produced the chalk and limestone bills
which are now cold; and from this carbon,
oxygen, and calcium no further energy can be
derived. And so it is with almost all the other
constituents of the earth’s crust. They took
their present form in obedience to molecular
force; they turned their potential energy into
dynamic, and gave it to the universe ages before
man appeared upon this planet. Tor him a
residue of power is left, vast truly in relation to
the life and wants of an individual, but exceed-
ingly minute in comparison with the earth’s
primitive store.” 1

I learn from Mr. Hunt that his forthcoming
report will show the production of coal in the
United Kingdom in 1865 to be about ninety-five
millions of tons, giving a considerable increase
over the great total of 1864.

I would direct the attention of those who
think the failure of coal so absurd a notion, and
who, perhaps, would add that petroleum can

1 Fortnightly Jtrrim, Dec. 31, 1S(!5, p. 143.

Preface.

xix

take the place of coal when necessary, to the
results of an inquiry lately undertaken by
Mr. Hunt concerning an increase of supply of
cannel coal. He finds, after a minute personal
and local inquiry, that the present yearly pro-
duction of 1,418,176 tons might he raised to
8,172,000 tons should the gas companies demand
it and offer a sufficient price. But it appears to
he clear that such a supply could not he main-
tained for many years. The Wigan cannel is
estimated to last twenty years at the longest.
Ten years of the assumed production would ex-
haust the North Wales cannel, and two autho-
rities, Mr. Binnev and Mr. J. J. Landale, agree
that the Boghead oil-making coal will not last
many years.

It is evident, in short, that the sudden demand
for the manufacture of petroleum, added to the
steady and rising demand of the gas works, will
use up the peculiar and finest beds of oil and
gas-making coals in a very brief period.

I have to thank Mr. Robert Hunt not only for
his kindness in supplying me with a copy of the
unpublished report containing these facts, but
also for his readiness in furnishing the latest

XX

Preface.

available information from the Mining Record
Office. The operations of this most useful insti-
tution are still crippled, in spite of Mr. Hunt’s
constant exertions, by the want of proper
power. It was established at the suggestion of
the British Association, moved by Mr. Thomas
Sopwith, to preserve the plans of abandoned
mines in order that the future recovery of
coal or minerals now left unworked might be
facilitated, and the danger from irruptions of
water and foul air from forgotten workings be
averted. Colliery owners are, indeed, obliged to
possess plans of their workings, and to exhibit
them to the Government Inspectors of Mines,
but they are not obliged to deposit copies in the
Mining Record Office, on the ground of non-
interference with vested interests. The deposit
of plans then being voluntary, very few are re-
ceived, and almost all are lost or destroyed soon
after the closing of the colliery. Such plans,
however, are of national importance, like re-
gisters of births, deaths, and marriages, or wills
and other records. It is obvious that their de-
struction should be rendered illegal and penal,
and that after the closing of a colliery, when the

Preface.

xxi

interference with private interests becomes ima-
ginary, they should be compulsorily deposited in
the Mining Record Office. It is more than
twenty years since Mr. Sopwith urged these
views in his remarkable pamphlet on “ The
National Importance of preserving Mining
Records .” 1 Yet our legislation remains as it was
in truly English fashion. This subject, I hope,
will now receive proper attention from the
Royal Commission which is about to be ap-
pointed to inquire into the subject of our coal
supply.

My great obligations to Mr. Hull will he
clearly seen in several parts of the work.

I am inclined to think that a careful consider-
ation of my arguments null show them to he
less speculative and more practical than appears
at first sight. I have carefully avoided anything
like mere romance and speculation. It would he
romance to picture the New Zealander moralizing
over the ruins of London Bridge, or to imagine
the time when England will be a mere name in
history. Some day Britain may he known as
a second Crete, a sea-born island crowned by

See p. 20 infra.

C

xxii Preface.

ninety cities. Like the Cretans, we are ruled by
laws more divine than human ; we teach the use
of metals, and clear the seas of robbers, and
exert a mild governance over the coasts and
islands. We too like Crete may form in remote
history but a brief and half-forgotten link in the
transmission of the arts from the East towards
the West — transmission not without improve-
ment.

But the subjectof the following chapters, rightly
regarded, seems to me to have an immediate and
practical importance. It brings us face to face
with duties of the most difficult and weighty
character — duties which we have too long de-
ferred and ignored. So long as future genera-
tions seemed likely for an indefinite period to be
more numerous and comparatively richer than
ourselves, there was some excuse for trusting to
time for the amelioration of our people. But
the moment we begin to see a limit to the in-
crease of our wealth and numbers, we must feel
a new responsibility. We must begin to allow
that we can do to-day what we cannot so well do
to-morrow. It is surely in the moment when
prosperity is greatest ; when the revenue is ex-

Preface. xxiii

paneling most rapidly and spontaneously; when
employment is abundant for all, and wages rising,
and wealth accumulating so that individuals
hardly know how to expend it — then it is that an
effort can best he made, and perhaps only he made,
to raise the character of the people appreciably.

It is a melancholy fact which no Englishman
dare deny or attempt to palliate, that the whole
structure of our wealth and refined civilization
is built upon a basis of ignorance and pauperism
and vice, into the particulars of which we hardly
care to inquire. We are not entirely responsible
for this. It is the consequence of tendencies
which have operated for centuries past. But we
are now under a fearful responsibility that, in the
full fruition of the wealth and power which free
trade and the lavish use of our resources are
conferring upon us, we should not omit any prac-
ticable remedy. If we allow this period to pass
without far more extensive and systematic exer-
tions than we are now making, we shall suffer
just retribution.

It is not hard to point out what kind of mea-
sures are here referred to. The ignorance, im-
providence, and brutish drunkenness of our lower

c 2

XXIV

Preface.

working classes must be dispelled by a general
system of education, which may effect for a
future generation what is hopeless for the present
generation. One preparatory and indispensable
measure, however, is a far more general restric-
tion on the employment of children in manu-
facture. At present it may almost be said to be
profitable to breed little slaves and put them to
labour early, so as to get earnings out of them
before they have a will of their own. A worse
premium upon improvidence and future wretch-
edness could not be imagined.

Mr. Baker, the Inspector of Factories in South
Staffordshire, has given a deplorable account of
the way in which women and children are em-
ployed in the brick-yards ; and in the South
Wales ironworks I have myself seen similar
scenes, which would be incredible if described.
Dr. Morgan holds that our manufacturing popu-
lation is becoming degenerate; and it must be so
unless, as our manufacturing system grows,
corresponding restrictions are placed upon the
employment of infant labour.

It will be said that we cannot deprive parents
of their children’s earnings. If we cannot do it

Preface.

xxv

now, we can never do it ; and wretched, indeed,
must be a kingdom which depends for subsistence
upon infant labour. But we can do it to the
ultimate advantage of all, and we are hound to
do it from regard to the children themselves :
and anything which we may lose or spend now
in education and loss of labour will he repaid
many times over by the increased efficiency of
labour in the next generation.

Reflection will show that we ought not to think
of interfering with the free use of the material
wealth which Providence has placed at our dis-
posal, but that our duties wholly consist in the
earnest and wise application of it. We may
spend it on the one hand in increased luxury
and ostentation and corruption, and we shall be
blamed. We may spend it on the other hand
in raising the social and moral condition of the
people, and in reducing the burdens of future
generations. Even, if our successors be less
happily placed than ourselves they will not then
blame us.

To some it might seem that no good can come
from contemplating the weakness of our national
position. Discouragement and loss of prestige

XXVI

Preface.

could alone apparently result. But this is a
very superficial view, and the truth, I trust, is
far otherwise. Even the habitual contemplation
of death injures no man of any strength of
mind. It rather nerves him to think and act
justly while it is yet day. As a nation we have
too much put off for the hour what we ought
to have done at once. We are now in the full
morning of our national prosperity, and are
approaching noon. Yet we have hardly begun
to pay the moral and the social debts to millions
of our countrymen which we must pay before
the evening.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

PREFACE T

CHAPTE R I.

INTRODUCTION AND OUTLINE .... 1

CHAPTER II.

OPINIONS OF PREVIOUS WRITERS 15

CHAPTER III.

OP.OT.OGIOAT, ASPECTS OF THE QUESTION 36

CHAPTER IV.

O P TTTF. COST OP COAL MINING 56

CHAPTER^ V.

OP TTTF. PRICE OP COAL 75

CHAPTER VI.

OP BRITISH INVENTION 85

CHAPTER VII.

OP THE ECONOMY OF FUEL 122

CHAPTER VIII.

OF SUPPOSED SUBSTITUTES FOR COAL . , , , , , . , . 138

XXVI

Contents.

PAGFi

CH APTER TX.

OF THE NATURAL LAW OF SOCIAL GROWTH , . 269

CH APTER X.

OF THE GROWTH AND MIGRAT IONS OF OUR POPULATION . . 179

CHAP TER XT

OF THE CHANG E AND PROGRESS OF OUR INDUSTRY .... 206

CHAPTER X TT.

OF OU R CONSU MPTI ON OF COAL 2.10

CHAPTER XI TT .

OF THE EXPORT AND IMPORT OF COAL 9AP.

CHAPTER XIV.

OF THE COMPARAT IVE COAL RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, 279

CHAPTER XV.

OF THE IRON TRADE ■ ■ ■ 29/

CHAPTER XVI.

PROBLEM OF THE TRADING BODIES] 330

CHAPTER XVII.

OF TAXES AND THE NATIONAL DEBT 354

CHAPTER XVIII

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS 3^0

INDEX 377

THE

COAL QUESTION.

CHAPTER, I.

INTRODUCTION AND OUTLINE.

Day by day it becomes more evident that the
Coal we happily possess in excellent quality and
abundance is the mainspring of modern material
civilization. As the source of fire, it is the
source at once of mechanical motion and of
chemical change. Accordingly it is the chief
agent in almost every improvement or discovery
in the arts which the present age brings forth.
It is to us indispensable for domestic purposes,
and it has of late years been found to yield a
series of organic substances, which puzzle us by
their complexity, please us by their beautiful
colours, and serve us by their various utility.

B

2

The Coal Question.

And as the source especially of steam and iron,
coal is all powerful. This age has been called
the Iron Age, and it is true that iron is the
material of most great novelties. By its strength,
endurance, and wide range of qualities, this metal
is fitted to be the fulcrum and lever of great
works, while steam is the motive power. But
coal alone can command in sufficient abundance
either the iron or the steam ; and coal, therefore,
commands this age — the Age of Coal.

Coal in truth stands not beside hut entirely
above all other commodities. It is the material
energy of the country — the universal aid — the
factor in everything -we do. With coal almost
any feat is possible or easy; without it we are
thrown hack into the laborious poverty of early
times.

With such facts familiarly before us, it can be
no matter of surprise that year by year we make
larger draughts upon a material of such myriad
qualities — of such miraculous powers. But it is
at the same time impossible that men of fore-
sight should not turn to compare with some
anxiety the masses yearly drawn with the quan-
tities known or supposed to lie within these
islands.

Geologists of eminence, acquainted with the

Introduction and Outline.

3

contents of onr strata, and accustomed, in the
study of tlieir great science, to look over long
periods of time with judgment and enlighten-
ment, were long ago painfully struck by the
essentially limited nature of our main wealth.
And though others have been found to reassure
the public, roundly asserting that all anticipa-
tions of exhaustion are groundless and absurd,
and “may be deferred for an indefinite period,”
yet misgivings have constantly recurred to those
really examining the question. Not long since
the subject acquired new weight when promi-
nently brought forward by Sir W. Armstrong in
his Address to the British Association, at New-
castle, the very birthplace of the coal trade.

This question concerning the duration of our
present cheap supplies of coal cannot but excite
deep interest and anxiety wherever or whenever
it is mentioned : for a little reflection will show
that coal is almost the sole necessary basis of our
material power, and is that, consequently, which
gives efficiency to our moral and intellectual
capabilities. England’s manufacturing and com-
mercial greatness, at least, is at stake in this
question, nor can we be sure that material decay
may not involve us in moral and intellectual
retrogression. And as there is no part of the

4< The Coal Question.

civilized world where the life of our true aud
beneficent Commonwealth can he a matter of
indifference, so, above all, to an Englishman
who knows the grand and steadfast course his
country has pursued to its present point, its
future must he a matter of almost personal soli-
citude and affection.

The thoughtless and selfish, indeed, who fear
any interference with the enjoyment of the pre-
sent, will be apt to stigmatise all reasoning about
the future as absurd and chimerical. But the
opinions of such are closely guided by their
wishes. It is true that at the best we see dimly
into the future, hut those who acknowledge their
duty to posterity will feel impelled to use their
foresight upon what facts and guiding principles
we do possess. Though many data are at pre-
sent wanting or doubtful, our conclusions may he
rendered so far probable as to lead to further
inquiries upon a subject of such overwhelming
importance. And we ought not at least to delay
disj)ersing a set of plausible fallacies about the
economy of fuel, and the discovery of substitutes
for coal, which at present obscure the critical
nature of the question, and are eagerly passed
about among those who like to believe that we
have an indefinite period of prosperity before us.

Introduction and Outline.

5

The writers who have hitherto discussed this
question, being chiefly geologists, have of ne-
cessity treated it casually, and in a one-sided
manner. There are several reasons why it should
now receive fuller consideration. In the first
place, the accomplishment of a Tree Trade policy,
the repeal of many laws that tended to restrain
our industrial progress, and the very unusual
clause in the Trench Treaty which secures a free
export of coals for some years to come, are all
events tending to an indefinite increase of the
consumption of coal. On the other hand, two
most useful systems of Government inquiry have
lately furnished us with new and accurate in-
formation hearing upon the question ; the Geo-
logical Survey now gives some degree of certainty
to our estimates of the coal existing within our
reach, while the returns of mineral statistics
inform us very exactly of the amount of coal
consumed.

Taking advantage of such information, I ven-
ture to try and shape out a first rough approxi-
mation to the probable progress of our industry
and consumption of coal in a system of free
industry. We of course deal only with what is
probable. It is the duty of a careful writer not
to reject facts or circumstances because they are

6

The Coal Question.

only probable, but to state everything with its
clue weight of probability. It will be my fore-
most desire to discriminate certainty and doubt,
knowledge and ignorance — to state those data
we want, as well as those we have. But I
must also draw attention to principles governing
this subject, which have rather the certainty
of natural laws than the fickleness of statistical
numbers.

It will be apparent that the first seven of the
following chapters are mainly devoted to the
physical data of this question, and are of an
introductory character. The remaining chapters,
which treat of the social and commercial aspects
of the subject, constitute the more essential
part of the present inquiry. It is this part
of the subject which seems to me to have been
too much overlooked by those who have ex-
pressed opinions concerning the duration of our
coal supplies.

I have endeavoured to present a pretty com-
plete outline of the available information in
union with the arguments which the facts sug-
gest. But such is the extent and complexity
of the subject that it is impossible to notice all
the bearings of fact upon fact. The chapters,
therefore, have rather the character of essays

Introduction and Outline.

7

treating of the more important aspects of the
question ; and I may here suitably devote a
few words to pointing oat the particular pur-
pose of each chapter, and the hearings of one
upon the other.

I commence by citing the opinions of earlier
writers, who have more or less shadowed forth
my conclusions ; and I also quote Mr. Hull’s esti-
mate of the coal existing in England, and adopt
it as the geological datum of my arguments.

In considering the geological aspects of the
question, I endeavour to give some notion of the
way in which an estimate of the existing coal
is made, and of the degree of certainty at-
taching to it, deferring to the chapter upon
Coal Mining the question of the depth to which
we can follow seams of coal. It is shown that
in all probability there is no precise physical
limit of deep mining, but that the growing diffi-
culties of management and extraction of coal in
a very deep mine must greatly enhance its price.
It is by this rise of price that gradual exhaustion
will be manifested, and its deplorable effects
occasioned.

I naturally pass to consider whether there
are yet in the cost of coal any present signs of
exhaustion ; it appears that there has been no

8

The Coal Question.

recent rise of importance, but that, at the same
time, the high price demanded for coals drawn
from some of the deepest pits indicates the high
price that must in time he demanded for even
ordinary coals.

A distinct division of the inquiry, comprising
chapters vi. vii. and viii., treats of inventions
in regard to the use of coal. It is shown that
we owe almost all our arts to continental na-
tions, except those great arts which have been
called into use here hy the cheapness and excel-
lence of our coal. It is shown that the constant
tendency of discovery is to render coal a more
and more efficient agent, while there is no pro-
bability that when our coal is used up any more
powerful substitute will be forthcoming. Nor
will the economical use of coal reduce its con-
sumption. On the contrary, economy renders
the employment of coal more profitable, and thus
the present demand for coal is increased, and the
advantage is more strongly thrown upon the side
of those who will in the future have the cheapest
supplies. As it is in a subsequent chapter on the
Export and Import of Coal conclusively shown
that we cannot make up for a future want of
coal hy importation from other countries, it will
appear that there is no reasonable prospect of

Introduction and Outline.

9

any relief from a future want of the main agent
of industry . TVe must lose that lohich constitutes
our peculiar energy. And considering how greatly
our manufactures and navigation depend upon
coal, and how vast is our consumption of it com-
pared with that of other nations, it cannot he
supposed we shall do without coal more than a
fraction of what we do with it.

I then turn to a totally different aspect of the
question, leading to some estimate of the duration
of our prosperity.

I first explain the natural principle of popula-
tion, that a nation tends to multiply itself at a
constant rate, so as to receive not equal additions
in equal times, hut additions rapidly growing
greater and greater. In the chapter on Popula-
tion it is incidentally pointed out that the nation,
as a whole, has rapidly grown more numerous
from the time when the steam-engine and other
inventions involving the consumption of coal
came into use. Until about 1820 the agricul-
tural and manufacturing populations increased
about equally. But the former then became
excessive, occasioning great pauperism, while it
is only our towns and coal and iron districts
which have afforded any scope for a rapid and
continuous increase.

10

The Goal Question.

The more nearly, too, we approach industry
concerned directly with coal, the more rapid and
constant is the rate of growth. The progress
indeed of almost every part of our population
has clearly been checked by emigration, but that
this emigration is not due to pressure at home is
plain from the greatly increased frequency of
marriages in the last ten or fifteen years. And
though this emigration temporarily checks our
growth in mere numbers, it greatly promotes
our welfare, and tends to induce greater future
growths of population.

Attention is then drawn to the rapid and
constant rate of multiplication displayed by the
iron, cotton, shipping, and other great branches
of our industry, the progress of which is in
general quite unchecked up to the present time.
The consumption of coal, there is every reason
to suppose, has similarly been multiplying itself
at a growing rate. The present rate of increase
of our coal consumption is then ascertained, and
it is shown that, should the consumption multiply
for rather more than a century at the same rate ,
the average depth of our coal-mines would he 4,000
feet, and the average price of coal much higher
than the highest price now paid for the finest kinds
of coal.

Introduction and Outline.

11

It is thence simply inferred that toe cannot,
tony continue our present rate of progress. The
first check to our growing prosperity, however,
must render our population excessive. Emigra-
tion may relieve it, and hy exciting increased
trade tend to keep up our progress ; hut after a
time we must either sink down into poverty,
adopting wholly new habits, or else witness a
constant annual exodus of the youth of the
country. It is further pointed out that the
ultimate results will he to render labour so abun-
dant in the United States that our iron manufac-
tures will he underbid by the unrivalled iron and
coal resources of Pennsylvania ; and in a separate
chapter it is shown that the crude iron manufac-
ture will, in all probability, be our first loss,
while it is impossible to say how much of our
manufactures may not follow it.

Suggestions for checking the waste and use of
coal are briefly discussed, but the general con-
viction must force itself upon the mind, that
restrictive legislation may mar but cannot mend
the natural course of industrial development.
Such is a general outline of my arguments and
conclusions.

When I commenced studying this question,
I had little thought of some of the results, and

12

The Coal Question.

I might well hesitate at asserting things so little
accordant with the unbounded confidence of the
present day. But as serious misgivings do
already exist, some discussion is necessary to set
them at rest, or to confirm them, and perhaps
to modify our views. And in entering on such
a discussion, an unreserved, and even an over-
drawn, statement of the adverse circumstances,
is better than weak reticence. If my conclusions
are at all true, they cannot too soon he recog-
nised and kept in mind ; if mistaken, I shall he
among the first to rejoice at a vindication of our
country’s resources from all misgivings.

Bor my own part, I am convinced that this
question must before long force itself upon our
attention with painful urgency. It cannot long
he shirked and shelved. It must rise by degrees
into the position of a great national and perhaps
a party question, antithetical to that of Free
Trade. There will be a Conservative Party,
desirous, at all cost, to secure the continued and
exclusive prosperity of tiiis country as a main
bulwark of the general good. On the other
hand, there will he the Liberal Party, less
cautious, more trustful in abstract principles
and the unfettered tendencies of nature.

JBulwer, in one of his Caxtonian Essays, has

Introduction and Outline.

13

described, with all Ms usual felicity of thought
and language, the confliction of these two great
parties. They have fought many battles upon
this soil already, and the result as yet is that
wonderful union of stability and change, of the
good old and the good new, which makes the
English Constitution.

But if it shall seem that this is not to last
indefinitely — that some of our latest determina-
tions of policy lead directly to the exhaustion of
our main wealth — the letting down of our main-
spring — I know not how to express the difficulty
of the moral and political questions which will
arise. Some will Avisli to hold to our adopted prin-
ciples, and leave commerce and the consumption
of coal unchecked even to the last ; while others,
subordinating commerce to purposes of a higher
nature, will tend to the prohibition of coal ex-
ports, the restriction of trade, and the adoption
of eA r ery means of sparing the fuel which makes
our welfare and supports oiu* influence upon the
nations of the world.

This is a question of that almost religious
importance Avhich needs the separate study and
determination of eA'ery intelligent person. And
if we find that AA _ e must yield before the disposi-
tion of material Avealth, which is the work of a

14

The Coal Question.

higher Providence, we need not give way to
weak discouragement concerning the future, but
should rather learn to take an elevated view of
our undoubted duties and opportunities in the
present.

Opinions of Previous Writers.

15

CHAPTER II.

OPINIONS OF PREVIOUS WRITERS.

One of the earliest writers who conceived it was
possible to exhaust our coal mines was John
Williams, a mineral surveyor. In his “Natural
History of the Mineral Kingdom,” first published
in 1789, he gave a chapter to the consideration
of “The Limited Quantity of Coal of Britain .”
His remarks are highly intelligent, and prove
him to be one of the first to appreciate the value
of coal, and to foresee the consequences which
must some time result from its failure. This
event he rather prematurely apprehended; but
in those days, when no statistics had been col-
lected, and a geological map was un thought of,
accurate notions were not to be expected. Still,
his views on this subject may be read with profit,
even at the present day.

Sir John Sinclair, in his great Statistical Ac-
count of Scotland, 1 took a most enlightened view

1 Vol. xii. ]i, .ill.

16

The Goal Question.

of the importance of coal; and, in noticing the
Eifeshire coal-field, expressed considerable fears
as to a future exhaustion of our mines. He
correctly contrasted the fixed extent of a coal-
field with the ever-growing nature of the con-
sumption of coal.

In 1812 Robert Bald, another Scotch writer,
in his very intelligent “ General View of the Coal
Trade of Scotland,” showed most clearly how
surely and rapidly a consumption, growing in a
“quick, increasing series,” 1 must overcome a
fixed store, however large. Even if the Gram-
pian mountains, he said, 2 were composed of coal,
we would ultimately bring down their summits,
and make them level with the vales.

In later years, the esteemed geologist, Dr.
Buckland, most prominently and earnestly
brought this subject before the public, both in
his evidence before the Parliamentary Commit-
tees of 1830 and 1835, and in his celebrated
“Bridgewater Treatise.” 3 On every suitable
occasion he implored the country to allow no
waste of an article so invaluable as coal.

Many geologists, and other writers, without

1 P. 94. = P. 97.

3 See also his Address to the Geological Society, Feb. 19tli, 1841,

p. 41.

Opinions of Previous TFriters. 17

fully comprehending the subject, have made so-
called estimates of the duration of the Newcastle
coal-field. Half a century ago, this field was so
much the most important and well known, that
it took the whole attention of English writers.
The great fields of South Wales and Scotland, in
fact, were scarcely opened. But those who did
not dream of the whole coal-fields of Great
Britain being capable of exhaustion, were early
struck by the progressive failure of the celebrated
Newcastle seams. Those concerned in the coal
trade know for how many years each colliery is
considered good ; and perhaps, like George Ste-
phenson in early youth, have had their homes
more than once moved and broken up by the
working out of a colliery. 1 It is not possible
for such men to shut their eyes altogether to
the facts.

I give, on the following page, a tabular sum-
mary of the chief estimates of the duration of
the Newcastle field.

1 Smiles’ Engineers, yoI. iii. pp. 18, 22.

C

18

The Goal Question.

Estimates of the Duration of the Northumberland and. Durham Coal-Field..

Author of Esti-
mate.

Pate
of Esti-
mate.

Supposed Area of
Coal Measures

UllWi )li<ed.

Square Miles.

Es! hunted
Annum t of Coni.

Millions of Tons.

Assumed Annual
(JullSll I ii | itinil uf
Coal.

'J’oiih.

Durui ion
of

Snnply.

Years,

Mac Nub 1 . .

1792

300

—

300

Bailey 2 . . .

1801

—

1,866,200

200

Thomson 3 . .

1814

—

5,575

3,700,000

1000

Bakewell 4 . .

—

—

—

—

350

Hugh Taylor 5 *

1830

732

6,046

3,500,000

1727

Buckland 0

1830

—

-

—

400

Grecmvell 7 .

1846

—

—

10,000.000

331

T. Y. Hall 8 .

1854

750

5,122

14,000,000

365

E. Hull 9 . .

1864

685

7,226

16,001,125

450

1 Treatise on the Coal Trade, quoted in Appendix to J. Williams’
History of the Mineral Kingdom : Edinburgh, 1K10, vol. ii. p. 207.

5 Edinburgh lieview, vol. cxi. p. 84, note. This estimate, however,
seems to refer to Durham only, rind to a later year than 1801. See
John Bailey, “General View of the Agriculture of the County of
Durham,” 1810, p. 28.

9 Annals of Philosophy, December, 1814.

4 Introduction to Geology, p. 102.

6 Report on Goal Trade, 1830, p. 77. Edinburgh Review, vol, li.
p. lflO. M'Oulloch’s Dictionary, art. Coal.

0 Report on Coal Trade, 1830.

7 and 8 T. Y. Hall. Transactions of the North of England Institute

of Mining Engineers, I8ti4. Fordyce, History of (Inal, Coke, and
Coal-Fields: Newcastle, 1800, p. 32.

* The Coal-Fields of Great Britain, by Edward Hull, B.A. 2d Ed,
p. 161. (Stanford.)

Opinions of Previous Writers. 19

Suffice it to remark, concerning these esti-
mates, that the amounts of coal supposed to
exist in the Newcastle field are much more
accordant than the conclusions as to the pro-
bable duration of the supply. The reason of
course is that the annual consumption is a
rapidly-growing quantity, and it is a most short-
sighted proceeding to argue as if it were con-
stant. These so-called estimates of duration are
no such thing, but only compendious statements
how many limes the coal existing in the earth
exceeds the quantity then annually drawn.

The apparent accordance of these writers
often arises, too, from the compensation of
errors. Some of them assumed, most wrongly,
that the known seams extended continuously
over the whole area of the field ; they did not
allow for the less extension of the higher seams,
a point we shall have to consider; and then
again, even l)r. Buckland, in accordance with
the prevalent opinion of those times, did not
suppose that any coal existed under the mag-
nesian limestone strata at the southern angle of
the Newcastle field. In Mr. Hull’s estimate,
however, allowance is made for hidden coal
likely to exist. lie takes 160 square miles as
the area of the open coal measures, and 225

c 2

20

The Coal Question.

square miles as the available area covered by
newer geological formations.

Some writers, without going into numerical
detail, have explained very clearly the bearings
of this question. John Holland, for instance,
the author of an excellent anonymous work on
coal, has made very sound remarks upon the
probable duration of our coal. “While,” lie
says, 1 “ it is manifestly inconclusive to estimate
according to present demand the consumption of
coals for centuries to come ; and still more so to
assign any specific condition of society to such
a remote period ; we are warranted, in the first
place, in assuming that the demand for this
species of fuel will not diminish, but increase,
with every imaginable condition of the progress
of society ; and, secondly, we have before us the
undoubted fact, that our mines are not inex-
haustible. In addition to this, there is the
most direct evidence to show how far some of
the most valuable beds in the northern coal-
fields have been worked out already; at the
same time, that tolerably satisfactory calcula-
tions have been made as to the quantity re-
maining unwrought.”

1 A History an 1 Description of Fossil Fuel : 18:15, clnvp. xxiv, p. 454.

Opinions of Precious Writers. 21

Mr. T. Sopwith, in 1844, in an essay on
“ The National Importance of Preserving Mining
Records” (p. 50), made the following very ex-
cellent remarks : — “ The opinion that our stores
of coal are all hut inexhaustible rests wholly on
assumed data, and not upon any accurate and
detailed statistical accounts such as alone could
warrant a confident opinion. This question will,
ere long, become a subject of serious concern,
unless some measures are taken to found our
calculations on a solid basis. It is an easy
matter to assume that a considerable thickness
of available coal extends over hundreds of square
miles ; but the different opinions formed by men
of the highest respectability and talent, strongly
prove how meagre and unsatisfactory are the
only data on which these estimates are founded.
It is not, however, the mere quantity of coal
that is to he considered. Especial regard must
be had to its quality, depth, thickness, extent,
and position. Many of the inferior seams can
only he worked in conjunction with those which,
by their superior quality, repay the expense of
working them at depths varying from 300 to 600
yards ; and it may readily he conceived, that
inferior coal only could not he profitably raised
from pits equal in depth to three or four times

22

The Coal Question.

the height of St. Paul’s Cathedral, unless the
price of such inferior coal was raised to more
than the present price of the best coal. It is
the additional expense and consequent additional
difficulty of competing with other countries, that
is the vital question to be considered. It is not
the exhaustion of mines, but the period at which
they can he profitably worked, that merits earnest
and immediate attention.”

Among statistical writers the late Mr. M'Cul-
loch characterised the notions of the exhausti-
bility of our coal mines as utterly futile, both in
the article on Coal, in his “ Dictionary of Com-
merce,” and in his “Account of the British
Empire.” 1 Por his views, however, the reader
may be referred to works so well known and
accessible.

Mr. Waterston, in his “ Cyclopaedia of Com-
merce,” 2 treated the question with more caution,
hut erroneously supposed that modes of econo-
mising coal would compensate the evil of the
increasing cost.

The progress of the Geological Survey, and
the establishment of a Mining Record Office,'

1 Fourth Edition, vol. i. p. 600. 2 1846, p. 163.

3 As suggested by Mr, Sopxvith at the British Association in
1838.

Opinions of Previous Writers. 23

have placed this question upon a new footing :
and when, in 1860, public attention was drawn
to the subject by the warm debates on the
French Treaty, Mr. Edward Hull, of the Geo-
logical Survey, was induced to prepare a concise
description of our coal-fields with an estimate
of their total contents. The latest views of the
same geologist have been given in an excellent
paper on the coal-fields, forming the first article
of the Journal of Science for January 1861.

Referring the reader for all geological details
to Mr. Hull’s very useful works, and leaving
over for discussion some points of his calcula-
tions, I will now state his general results. The
following table gives Mr. Hull’s estimate of the
probable contents of each of our chief coal-
fields : l —

1 Coal-Fields of Great Britain, 2d Ed. p, 187.

24

The Goal Question.

Coal-field.

Area of open Coal
Measures.

Square Miles.

Area covered by
newer formations.

Square Miles.

Total Coal to depth
of 4,000 feet. .

Millions of Tons.

Anglesea ....

9

*

Bristol & Somerset

45

105

2,488

Coalbrookdale . .

28

—

28

Cumberland . .

25

—

97

Denbighshire . .

47

20

902

Derby and York .

760

400

16,800

Newcastle . . .

460

225

7,270

Flintshire . . .

35

(?)

20

Forest of Dean. .

34

—

561

Forest of Wyre. .

—

—

*

Lancashire . . .

217

25

4,510

Leicestershire . .

15

30

450

North Stafford .

75

20

2,237

South Stafford . .

93

—

973

Shrewsbury . . .

—

—

*

South Wales . .

906

—

16,000

Warwickshire . .

30

107

2,184

Scotland ....

1,720

—

25,323

Totals ....

4,499

932

79,843

In his later publication , 1 Mr. Hull gives his
estimate in the following form : — ■

* Inconsiderable amounts,

1 Journal of Science, No. I. p. 33.

Opinions of Previous Writers.

25

General Statement of the Condition of our Coal-Fields.

C’ual Group.

Area in
Square
Miles.

Coal Contents.

Millions of
Tons.

Produce in 1S01.
Tons.

Number of
Collieries,
1861.

Scotch ....

1,920

25,300

11,081,000

424

Newcastle . . .

1,845

24,000

34,635,884

848

Lancashire, Staf-
fordshire, &c. .

535

7,594

25,643,000

1,158

South Wales . .

1,094

26,560

13,201,796

516

Cumberland . .

25

90

1,255,644

28

Totals . , .

5,419

83,544

85,817,324

2,974

It will be seen that his estimate, in 1861, of
the total contents of our coal-fields, exceeds by
only an inconsiderable quantity his estimates in
1860 and 1861. I shall accept this quantity of
83,514,000,000 tons of available coal as a conve-
nient basis for discussion, subject to whatever
may be said later on, as to some of Mr. Hull’s
assumptions. As Mr. Hull possesses the most
intimate practical acquaintance with the Lanca-
shire and some of the Midland coal-fields, acquired
in carrying out the Geological Survey, and has
at his command all the published results of the
survey, the experience of his coadjutors, and the

20

The Coed Question.

writings of previous geologists, his estimate must
certainly be accepted for the present.

But whether this estimate he accurate or not,
it will appear that the exact quantity of coal
existing is a less important point in this question
than the rate at which our consumption increases,
and the natural laws which govern that consump-
tion. The question is mainly one of statistical
science, and it is only as such that I venture to
have anything to do with it.

Mr. Hull, indeed, has not confined himself to
the geological side of the question, and his re-
marks upon tire statistical bearings of his estimate
must not he passed over, though they are far from
having the same weight as his geological state-
ments. Throughout his work, he compares the
contents of each coal-field with the present annual
quantity of coal drawn from it, and his remarks
on the condition of the several fields are inter-
esting and significant. The present generation,
he thinks, may see the end of the Flintshire coal-
field, which was largely worked in the days of
shallow pits, and contains little more than twenty
millions of tons for future supply . 1 The Coal-
hrookdale coal-field, where the present mode of
iron manufacture was first established, is even

1 Journal of Science, No. I. p. 29.

27

Opinions of Previous Writers.

further advanced towards exhaustion, and can
hardly last more than twenty years. The South
Staffordshire field has passed the meridian of its
career, and is on the verge of old age. “ Its
extraordinary richness has been the principal
cause of its early decline, and the treasures
easily acquired have been often recklessly squan-
dered.” 1

It is true that the great South Wales and
Scotch coal basins contain some thousands of
times their present annual yield of coal. But it
is obvious they will have, in future years, to com-
pensate the falling off in all the smaller and older
fields, as well as to hear their own increased local
demand. Coal will be got where it can most
cheaply and easily he got, and the exhaustion of
one field will only throw a new demand upon
fresher fields. This is a process already exten-
sively going on.

“ The supply of coal in the South Staffordshire
district,” says Mr. William Mathews , 2 “ has
seriously fallen off of late years, and has become
quite inadequate to meet the demand occasioned
by the development of its other manufacturing

1 Journal of Science, No. I. p. 30.

2 Trans, of the North of Eugland Institute of Mining Engineers,

vul. x. p. 74. (1S62.)

28

The Coal Question.

resources. We are, therefore, obliged to lean
somewhat on the aids which the produce of the
northern coal-fields opens up to us; and if, by
any chance, the resources we now enjoy, from
that and other districts in England, should he
withheld, we should feel the inconvenience of
being deprived of such resources very sensibly
indeed.”

The same process is taking place, by aid of
railways, in many shallow coal districts, and
it may proceed until the whole country is mainly
dependent on one or two of the greatest coal
basins. We ought, therefore, to compare the
total supply within the kingdom with the total
probable demand, paying little or no regard to
local circumstances.

Mr. Hull has made such a comparison. He
compared the 79,843 millions of tons of his first
estimate 1 with the 72 million tons of coal con-
sumed in 1859, and deduced that, at the same
rate of consumption, the supply would last 1100
years.

“Yet we have no right,” he very truly re-
marked, “ to assume that such will be the actual
duration ; for the history of coal mining during
the last half century has been one of rapid

1 Coal-Fields of Grout Britain, 2d Ed. p. 236.

29

Opinions of Previous Writers.

advance.” Our consumption, in short, had about
doubled itself since 1840 ; and, supposing it to
continue doubling every twenty years, our “ total
available supply would be exhausted before the
lapse of the year 2034.” 1

“ If we bad reason,” he continues, 2 “ to expect
that the increase of future years was to progress
in the same ratio, we might well tremble for the
result ; for that would be nothing less than the
utter exhaustion of our coal-fields, with its con-
comitant influence upon our population, our
commerce, and national prosperity, in the short
period of 172 years ! ”

No sooner has Mr. Hull reached this truly
alarmino; result than he recoils from it. “ But
are we,” he says, “really to expect so rapid a
drain in future years ? I think not.” Economy
will reduce our consumption ; the burning waste-
heaps of coal will be stopped ; America will
relieve us from the world-wide demand for our
coal, and will eventually furnish even this country'
with as much as we want. Such are some of
the fallacious notions with which Mr. Hull, in
common with many others, seeks to avoid an
unwelcome conclusion. More lately, he has

1 The calculation is not strictly correct.

! It 237.

30

The Coal Question.

said:' “Notwithstanding these facts, however,
it would be rash to assume that the experience
of the past is to be a criterion of the future. We
neither wish for, nor expect, an increase during
the remainder of the second half of this century,
at all proportionate to that of the earlier half;
and this view is borne out by some of the later
returns. Some of our coal-fields, as has been
shown, have passed their meridian, and, having
expended their strength, are verging to decay.
Others have attained their maximum, or nearly
so ; this, indeed, is the case with the majority.
The younger coal-fields will have much of their
strength absorbed in compensating for the falling-
off of the older ; so that, in a few years, the
whole of our coal-producing districts will reach a
stage of activity beyond which they cannot ad-
vance, but around which they may oscillate.
Entertaining these views, I am inclined to place
the possible maximum of production at 100 mil-
lions of tons a year ; and yet it has been shown
that, even with this enormous ‘ output,’ there is
enough coal to last for eight centuries.”

The reader will easily sec, in the course of our
inquiry, how mistaken is Mr. Hull, in sup-
posing our production of coal to lie limited

1 Journal of faience, No. T. y>. 35,

Opinions of Previous Writers. 31

to 100 millions. It has already exceeded 92
millions without counting the waste of slack
coal, and is yet advancing by great strides. And
the public seems unaware that a sudden check to
the expansion of our supply icould be the very
manifestation of exhaustion ice dread. It would
at once bring on us the rising price, the trans-
ference of industry, and the general reverse of
prosperity, which we may hope not to witness in
our days. And the eight centuries of stationary
existence he promises ns would be little set
off against a nearer prospect so critical and
alarming.

Pacts, however, prove the hastiness of these
views. The number of collieries is rapidly in-
creasing up to the very last accounts (1861) ;
and new collieries being mostly larger works
than the old ones laid in, we may conclude that
coal owners are confident of pushing the produc-
tion for many years to come.

The remarks of Sir W. Armstrong on this
subject, in his Address to the British Association
at Newcastle, in 1863, are so excellent that I
quote them at length : — “ The phase of the
earth’s existence, suitable for the extensive
formation of coal, appears to have passed away
for ever ; but the quantity of that invaluable

32

The Coal Question.

mineral which has heen stored up throughout
the globe for our benefit is sufficient (if used
discreetly) to serve the purposes of the human
race for many thousands of years. In fact, the
entire quantity of coal may lie considered as
practically inexhaustible.

“ Turning, however, to our own particular
country, and contemplating the rate at which we
are expending those seams of coal which yield
the best quality of fuel and can he worked at
the least expense, we shall find much cause for
anxiety. The greatness of England much de-
pends upon the superiority of her coal, in cheap-
ness and quality, over that of other nations ; hut
we have already drawn, from our choicest mines,
a far larger quantity of coal than has been raised
in all other parts of the world put together ; and
the time is not remote when we shall have to
encounter the disadvantages of increased cost of
working and diminished value of produce.

“ Estimates have been made at various periods
of the time which would he required to produce
complete exhaustion of all the accessible coal in
the British Islands. The estimates are certainly
discordant ; hut the discrepancies arise, not from
any important disagreement as to the available
quantity of coal, but from the enormous difference

Opinions of Previous Writers. 33

in the rate of consumption at the various dates
when the estimates were made, and also from the
different views which have been entertained as to
the probable increase of consumption in future
years. The quantity of coal yearly worked from
British mines has been almost trebled during
the last twenty years, and has probably increased
tenfold since the commencement of the present
century ; but as this increase has taken place
pending the introduction of steam navigation
and railway transit, and under exceptional con-
ditions of manufacturing development, it would
be too much to assume that it will continue to
advance with equal rapidity.

“ The statistics collected by Mr. Hunt, of the
Mining Record Office, show that, at the end of
1861, the quantity of coal raised in the United
Kingdom had reached the enormous total of 86
millions of tons, and that the average annual
increase in the eight preceding years amounted to
2 f millions of tons.

“ Let us inquire, then, what will be the dura-
tion of our coal-fields if this more moderate rate
of increase be maintained. By combining the
known thickness of the various workable seams of
coal, and computing the area of the surface under
which they lie, it is easy to arrive at an estimate

D

34

The Oocd Question.

of the total quantity comprised in our coal-bearing
strata. Assuming 4,000 feet as the greatest
depth at which it will ever be possible to carry
on mining operations, and rejecting all seams of
less than two feet in thickness, the entire quantity
of available coal existing in these islands has
been calculated to amount to about 80,000 mil-
lions of tons, which, at the jiresent rate of corn-
sumption, would be exhausted in 930 years ; but
with a continued yearly increase of millions
of tons would only last 212 years.

“ It is clear that, long before complete ex-
haustion takes place, England will have ceased
to be a coal-producing country on an extensive
scale. Other nations, and especially the United
States of America, which possess coal-fields
thirty-seven times more extensive than ours,
will then be Avorking more accessible beds at a
smaller cost, and will be able to displace the
English coal from every market. The question
is, not how long our coal will endure before
absolute exhaustion is effected, but Iioav long
will those particular coal-seams last which yield
coal of a quality and at a price to enable this
country to maintain her present supremacy in
manufacturing industry. So far as this parti-
cular district is concerned, it is generally admitted

Opinions of Previous Writers. 35

that 200 years will be sufficient to exhaust the
principal seams, even at the present rate of
working. If the production should continue to
increase as it is now doing, the duration of those
seams will not reach half that period. How the
case may stand in other coal mining districts, I
have not the means of ascertaining ; but, as the
best and most accessible coal will always be
worked in preference to any other, I fear the
same rapid exhaustion of our most valuable
seams is everywhere taking place.”

With almost every part of this statement I
can concur, except the calculation by a fixed
annual increase of consumption, which I shall
show to he contrary to the principles of the
subject, and not to reach the whole truth.

Dr. Percy, the eminent metallurgist of the
School of Mines, is one whose opinions will hear
great weight on this subject ; and in several pas-
sages of his new treatises on Metallurgy, he has
expressed his misgivings. Our coal, he says, “is
not only being consumed at a prodigious rate at
home, but is being largely exported ; and the
question as to the probable duration of our coal-
fields has, of late, been discussed with reasonable
anxiety. In 1862 we raised 81,000,000 tons
of coal, and the demand continually increases.

n 2

3

The Coal Question.

Hitherto, owing to the abundance of our mineral
fuel, we have been, and we still are, comparatively
regardless of economy in its consumption. The
time has now arrived when necessity will compel
us to act differently, both in our manufactories
and in our households.”

I conclude this chapter with the following
passage from the work of two eminent geologists,
who wrote, however, when the question was not
so urgent as at present : —

“ The manufacturing industry of this island,
•colossal as is the fabric which it has raised, rests
principally on no other base than our fortunate
position with regard to the rocks of this series.
Should our coal-mines ever be exhausted it would
melt away at once, and it need not be said that
the effect produced on private and domestic com-
fort would be equally fatal with the diminution
of public wealth ; we should lose many of the
advantages of our high civilization, and much
of our cultivated grounds must be again shaded
with forests to afford fuel to a remnant of our
present population. That there is a progressive
tendency to approach this limit is certain ; but
ages may yet pass before it is felt very sensibly,
and, when it does approach, the increasing diffi-
culty and expense of working the mines of coal

Opinions of Previous Writers. 37

will operate, by successive and gradual checks
against its consumption, through a long period,
so that the transition may not be very violent :
our manufacturers would first feel the shock ;
the excess of population supported by them
would cease to be called into existence, as the
demand for their labour ceased ; the cultivation
of poor lands would become less profitable, and
their conversion into forests more so.” 1

1 Conybeare and Phillips, Outlines of Geology, pp, 324, 325.

38

The Goal Question .

CHAPTER III.

GEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OP THE QUESTION.

-It** .

MU

CA> Wj w .

I cannot pretend to do more, as regards the geo-
logical aspects of this question., than to give
some brief account of the way in which geolo-
gists argue concerning it. At the most I must
only try to point out what is clear and easy, and
what is yet involved in doubt.

In the first place, when we know the extent
and thickness of a coal seam, we easily calculate
its contents by weight. Coal varies in specific
gravity, from about 1'25 to 1'33, or is from one
and a quarter to one and a third times as heavy
as an equal hulk of water. A cubic yard of
solid coal therefore weighs from 2,103 l bs, to
2,243 lbs . And since 2 ,240 l bs, make one ton, it
-is quite exact enough to say that a cubic yard is
a ton in weight .

Supposing a seam, then, to he exactly a yard
thick, an acre of it will contain 4,840 tons of
coal, and a square mile 3,097,600 tons. We

Geological Aspects of the Question. 39

may say in round numbers that a coal seam
gives a million tons of coal p>er foot thick per
square mile.

Our task is now reduced to that of defining
the area and thickness of the coal seams of any
district. The manner, however, in which the
seams have been formed and disposed in the
crust of the earth gives rise to several difficulties.

1. The seams are of very different thickness
and quality, some workable and others unwork-
able; we are not certain how many we may
count upon.

2. The area of the seams in a district is not
uniform, some having been much more denuded
or swept away by aqueous agency than others.

3. Coal seams are more or less broken up by
faults and hitches, and a greater or less quantity
of coal must be sacrificed to the necessities of
mining.

4. Coal seams on one side often sink to unex-
plored depths, and we are uncertain how far we
can follow them. There are reasons, too, for
supposing that coal measures may exist where
they have never yet been reached.

The first question, of the thickness of work-
able seams, will be more fitly discussed in the
next chapter. The fact is sufficient here, that,

40

The Coal Question .

under the present prices of coal, seams of less
than eighteen or twenty-four inches do not repay
the cost of working.

We have next to consider the superficial extent
of coal seams. It is obvious that so far as seams
lie one above the other co-extensively, we may
lump them together in our estimate. Thus, in
the Newcastle field, there are ten seams of more
than two feet thickness, and in workable con-
dition. Of these the High main and Low main
coal seams are each six feet thick, and the inter-
mediate Bensham seam is nearly three feet.
Adding in the seven other less valuable seams,
we have a total thickness of coal of thirty-six
feet. As the area of the field, according to Mr.
Hull, is 460 square miles, we might be inclined
to reckon the total contents according to the rule
at 460 x 36 millions of tons, or 16,560 millions.
But we should here commit a considerable error,
because the seams are not co-extensive. The
quantity assumed by Mr. Hull, “ corrected for
denudation,” is only 8,548 millions of tons.

The origin of the difference is very easily ex-
plained, though overlooked by many early and
some late estimators. It arises from the very
large portions of the upper seams that have been
swept away or denuded during geological ages.

Geological Aspects of the Question. 41

The coal measures consist of many alternated
beds of sand, mud, coal, and ironstone, deposited
during a long interval of time in estuaries, great
swamps, fresh-water lakes, deltas, or flat shores,
which gradually sank as the beds were added.
As first deposited, the strata must have been
nearly level, but they are seldom so now. They
lie at every angle from the horizontal to the
vertical. Nowhere have we such good opportu-
nities as in our coal mines of observing the
upraisals, the downfalls, the dislocations, contor-
tions, and denudations which rocks have suffered.
The Scotch coal-fields must, at one time, have
formed a nearly continuous and level sheet, hut
are now broken up into many separate irregular
basins, and the seams are sometimes, as in the
Mid-Lothian mines, turned up quite vertically
on their edge. In the Trench fields the beds are
sometimes folded in and out in a highly com-
plicated and troublesome manner.

In general the coal measures have only been
tilted up on one side in sloping plains, or bent
into gentle curves and hasin-like depressions.
These movements could not take place without
destroying the continuity of the strata ; for
though rocks seem to us solid and immovable,
they arc in comparison with volcanic forces hut

42

The Coal Question.

as thin and incoherent crusts. Accordingly, the
beds are transversed in every direction by cracks,
fissures, faults, where the whole mass of strata
many thousand feet thick has been cloven
through, one side comparatively to the other
being thrown up. The great ninety fathom
dyke, for instance, which crosses the Newcastle
field, in a somewhat curved line to the north of
the River Tyne, has caused the downthrow of
the strata on the north side to the depth of 540
feet, and has had curious influences upon the
progress of the English coal trade. On the
whole, the Newcastle field is one of the least
disturbed, and presents few great difficulties to
the miner.

The Lancashire field is more troubled. The
new map of the Geological Survey, prepared by
Mr. Hull, a complete copy of which may be seen
in the Museum of Practical Geology, represents
it as scored and broken by a number of cracks,
small and great, interlacing in a very complex
manner. In short, a sheet of coal measures, to
use Dr. Buckland’s expression, is like a sheet of
ice broken into numerous irregular pieces, but
soldered together again without any bit being
wholly lost.

Now, when all these disturbances took place,

Geological Aspects of the Question. 43

the surface of the ground must have been atfected
as well as the underground strata. We might
expect to find on the south side of the ninety
fathom dyke at Newcastle, a perpendicular rocky
cliff of corresponding height. But no such thing
is known on any of the coal-fields. The surface
of our English coal-fields is either quite flat, or
only swelling in one direction into round topped
hills, showing no conformity to the underground
disturbances. We cannot mistake the reason.
While earthquakes and intrusions of laya were
breaking up the strata, winds and rains and
streams, or perhaps the tides of a shallow
estuary, were wearing away all prominences, and
carrying off great masses of rock. It has been
shown, for instance, hv Professor Ramsay, that
the whole body of the coal measures between
the South Wales field and that of the Eorest of
Dean, has beeu swept away ; and the missing
portion, far larger than mountains in mass, is
conjecturally restored in the plates to one of the
earlier memoirs of the Geological Survey.

During this process the upper beds of course
would he soonest carried off. And when the
beds are thrown up on one side into an inclined
plane, we find the seams of coal more and more
cut away as they are nearer the surface. Thus

44

The Coal Question.

the coal measures, as they usually appear to us,
successively crop up to the surface, like the layers
of a piece of wood that has been planed oif
obliquely to its grain.

Thus it happens that the High main seam of
coal at Newcastle is quite near the surface, and
of comparatively limited extent ; while the lower
seams crop up to the surface at successively
greater distances from the centre of the field, and
the lowest crow coals not included in the true
measures appear far away.

It is obvious, therefore, that in estimating the
contents of a coal-field as we find it, we ought to
lay down, on a map the line of out-crop of each
seam, that line at which it is cut by the surface
of the ground. Then we should measure sepa-
rately the area of each seam, and multiply each
area by the thickness of the seam. On many of
the maps of the Geological Survey the out-crop
of the seams is beautifully shown in series of
devious curves, sharply dislocated here and there
by the faults. But I am not aware that any
person has yet estimated the seams separately.
The subject has hardly required so much nicety
as yet, and Mr. Hull arrives at a corresponding
result by what he calls a “ correction for de-
nudation,” or an allowance for the large part of

Geological Aspects of the Question. 45

the upper beds worn away in the Newcastle
field. How he estimates this “correction,”
almost amounting to half, I do not know.

But the amount of coal ascertained by multi-
plying the area into the thickness of a seam must
not he taken as the amount available. Some
part of a seam is always broken up, burnt, or
spoiled by the faults and dykes which traverse
it. Another considerable part is always lost in
mining. Up to the end of last century it was
not usual to extract more than four-tenths of the
coal in a seam, when working at a greater depth
than 100 fathoms ; the rest was left in the form
of thick pillars to keep the roof from falling in.
The free use of timber to support the roof, and
the introduction of long-wall, and panel work-
ing, has allowed the extraction of nearly all the
coal in favourable positions. Still, in unfavour-
able circumstances, the highest mining skill will
probably be unable to get the whole coal ; and
besides this it is always necessary to leave thick
barriers of coal around the limits of the property
in order to shut out the water, or the foul air of
neighbouring works. A clause to this effect is
always introduced into a mining lease, and if not
observed, the mine may easily become unwork-
able. If to these barriers and the wasted pillars

46

The Coal Question.

of coal, we add the small coal burnt at the pit
mouth, or consumed in the ventilating furnaces
and engines, we cannot estimate the coal avail-
able for commerce at more than two-thirds of
that which the continuous seams would contain.
Accordingly, Mr. Hull allows one-third for
waste.

The contents of a coal-field may then he esti-
mated with some certainty, provided that the
boundaries of the seams on every side he known.
This is the case in a perfect coal basin like that
of the Forest of Dean. In the case of fields
abutting on the sea, like those of Newcastle and
Whitehaven, we have only the uncertainty con-
cerning the distance to which coal can he worked
under the sea. From one to three miles is the
greatest distance we can conceive possible, except
under a rise of price, which would constitute the
scarcity of coal to he apprehended.

It is only when coal seams sink down beyond
our knowledge on one side, as in the Yorkshire
field, that we are in thorough uncertainty as to
the quantity of available coal. The question
here becomes a two-fold one. Firstly, how far
may the coal measures be supposed to dip and ex-
tend, under more modern formations ? Secondly,
how far can we follow them with profit, const-

Geological Aspects of the Question. 47

dering the growing costs and difficulty of deep
mining ?

Leaving the second question for discussion in
the next chapter, there is hut little that can be
said concerning the first.

If the science of geology had no other claims
upon our attention, it would repay all the labour
spent upon it, many times over, by showing
where coal may reasonably he looked for. By
fixing the geological date of each rock, it points
out in what interval the coal measures must
appear, if they appear at all. One-third of the
whole kingdom, it is said, is excluded from the
search hv being formed of rocks older than the
coal-hearing age. On the other hand, there are
large areas of country under which coal may
reasonably he expected to occur, although there
are no signs of it at the surface : and geology
may enable us even to fathom the thickness of
overlying rocks and tell with some certainty the
depth at which coal will probably occur, if at
all. 1

Mr. Hull includes in his estimate 932 square
miles of such country. Of these 225 square
miles occur at the south-east corner of the
Durham field, where the coal measures dip under

1 E. Hull, British Association. 1854. Report, p. 87.

48

The Coal Question.

the Magnesian Limestone and the New Led
Sandstone. Another 400 square miles occur
similarly on the eastward dip of the great York-
shire and Derbyshire field. Wirral and other
parts of the Cheshire New Led Sandstone are
probably underlain by hands or sheets of coal
measures, connecting the Flintshire and Den-
bighshire fields with the great Lancashire field.
The North and South Stafford, Warwick, Coal-
brookdale, and Forest of Wyre fields are more
or less completely connected. On the other
sides the fields are definitely terminated by the
appearance of the carboniferous or mountain
limestone, that great basement rock which in
nearly every part of the kingdom bears the coal
measures.

As these sunken coal-fields are continuous
with those now worked, there can be little or no
doubt as to their existence. But while they can
hardly contain better seams than those already
known, the seams may very possibly thin out if
followed far. And in many cases the overlying
Permian and New Bed Sandstone rocks may
contain so much water and swell to such a thick-
ness as to he quite impenetrable.

A band of coal seams connecting the Durham
and Yorkshire fields is of a more conjectural

Geological Aspects of the Question. 49

character. In the country between these two
fields the Magnesian Limestone, which is above
the coal, lies directly upon the millstone grit
and carboniferous limestone below the coal. As
there is no sign of coal measures at the junction,
coal cannot now exist at the point. If it ever
existed in the interval, it must have been swept
away before the era of the Permian or Magnesian
Limestone.

Noticing, then, the rectangular direction in
which the northerly edge of the Yorkshire coal,
and the southerly edge of the Durham coal run
under Permian beds, it seems to he wholly a
matter of uncertainty how far the denudation,
or absence of the coal measures, may extend.

Another possible position of coal measures is
beneath the cretaceous and W ealden beds of
Mbits, Berks, Surrey, and Kent. In 1855, Mr.
Godwin-Austen published a remarkable argu-
ment, shoving that a range of rocks, an under-
ground ridge of mountains, as it were, probably
stretched from the Mendip Hills to the Ardennes
in Belgium; and “we have strong a priori
reasons for supposing that the course of a band
of coal measures coincides with, and may some
day be reached, along the line of the valley of
the Thames, whilst some of the deeper-seated

E

50

The Coal Question.

coal, as well as certain overlying and limited
basins, may occur along and beneath some of the
longitudinal folds of the Wealden denudation.”
His deductions were partially verified immedi-
ately after publication by the actual discovery of
old rocks in the boring of wells at Kentish Town
and Harwich. But Mr. Whitaker, to whose
able memoir 1 and kind aid I am indebted, re-
marks on the uncertainty of such deductions
concerning coal. “ It must not be supposed that
because there is almost a certainty of there being
a ridge of old rocks at some depth below the
surface along part of the valley of the Thames,
and a likelihood of some of those old rocks be-
longing to the coal measures, therefore coal will be
found at a workable depth in parts of the London
District ; for the alternations of sandstone, shale,
&c., that so generally contain workable beds of
coal, and are therefore known as the ‘ coal
measures,’ are sometimes almost without that
mineral.”

In short, all that is shown is a hare possibility
of finding coal. But as it is uncertain whether
the coal measures are there at all — whether, if
there, they contain good coal — and if so, whether

1 The Geology of Parts of Middlesex, Hertfordshire, &c. by William
Whitaker, B.A. F.G.S. 18G4, p, 107. (Geological Survey.)

Geological Aspects of the Question. 51

they are within workable depth and circum-
stances, it must still he held very unlikely that
coal will ever he got in this tract.

And on the principle that “ a bird in the hand
is worth two in the hush,” we should avoid
putting too much reliance on possible coal-fields.
Their existence is doubtful — they cannot well
contain better coal than that we now enjoy, and
may contain much worse, and they are very
probably at depths, and in conditions, where
they are commercially out of the question, as
regards competition with foreign coals. There
is plenty of coal known to exist out of our
reach without resorting to coal that may or
may not exist, hut is in any case perhaps out
of reach.

Here I may notice the differences of opinion
that have arisen concerning the amount of acces-
sible coal in the Great South Wales coal tract.
Tor a long time it was considered an inex-
haustible store, to which we might have final
recourse some centuries hence.

Mr. H. H. Vivian, a great land and coal owner
of that district, Member of Parliament for Gla-
morganshire, yet insists upon its being regarded
in this light. During the discussions on the
Trench Treaty of Commerce in 1860, some oppo-

52

The Coal Question.

sition having been raised to the 11th clause, on
the ground that free exportation of coals must
accelerate the exhaustion of our mines, Mr.
Vivian roundly asserted that the South Wales
field alone would serve the whole consumption of
England for 500 years, and it would sustain its
own present consumption for 5,000 years. “ It
was perfectly absurd,” he said, “ to talk of the
exhaustion of coal in this country.”

Now, when Mr. Hull came to estimate the
amount of available coal in this field, he found
it to he only 2,000 times its present yield, or
two-fifths as much as Mr. Vivian’s estimate.

Having the accuracy of his statement then
called in question, Mr. Vivian published a small
pamphlet containing, in addition to a reprint
of his speech, and of a lecture on coal, a brief
critique on Mr. Hull’s calculations. “Mr.
Hull,” he says, “ takes the total thickness of
strata at 10,000 feet, containing 84 feet of valu-
able coal ; he then deducts for denudation 48,000
millions of tons; he next deducts one half the
remainder, or 24,000 millions of tons, for those
seams which lie below 4,000 feet; he further
deducts one third for waste, and the quantity
already extracted, leaving a balance of 16,000
millions of tons out of his original quantity,

Geological Aspects of the Question. 53

which he does not state, but which I calculate
from his data at 78,000 mi ll i ons of tons, as the
quantity likely to he available for man’s use,
equal to the present rate of the consumption of
South Wales for 2,000 years, my estimate having
been 5,000 years.” Mr. Vivian then objects to
the first of these deductions, that it is wholly
arbitrary, and beyond the power of any person,
however intimate his local knowledge, to esti-
mate. The second deduction he considers opposed
to fact.

But when Mr. Vivian defends and explains his
own estimate, what has he to urge ? “1 took

the thickness of coal,” he says, “ after the most
careful consideration, at 60 feet. I had mainly
in view the ‘ Great Lower Veins,’ varying from
50 feet on the northern to 100 feet on the
southern upcrop, and upwards of 70 feet on the
central upheave. I looked at the area over
which now, and ages hence, those beds might
probably be Avon. I considered the compara-
tively limited area under which they would lie
too deep, but where the ‘ Upper Vein,’ to some
extent, supplied their place, and I concluded that
I might fairly take 60 feet as an average work-
able thickness over the entire area. I then took
the produce at 40 per cent, less than the actual

54

The Coal Question.

contents, that is to say, I calculated the .cubic
yard at 1,500 t ons instead of 1,613 tons, or 6 66
P er cent - (less), and I allowed one-third, equal
- yv jL+y~ / ^ 1° 33-33 per cent, for waste, faults, quantity

already worked, &c., together 40 per cent. ; and
/_ U pon these data I arrived at the conclusion that

cr& : ' jL ' ' South Wales could supply all England for 500
years, and her own consumption for 5,000 ; to
that I adhere in spite of the calculations which
Mr. Hull has adduced.”

Now this sort of argument may he very satis-
factory to Mr. Vivian’s own mind, and, in a Par-
liamentary debate, a confident assertion by a man
of local knowledge and influence has a good deal
of weight, and rightly so. But will Mr. Vivian’s
views hear a moment’s criticism ? Would Mr.
Vivian accept such an estimate from a witness
before him on a Parliamentary Committee ?
Would he be satisfied with taking the thickness
of coal, “ after the most careful consideration, at
60 feet ? ” Why, what are the facts ? Geologists
of the highest standing — Sir T. I)e La Beche and
Sir W. E. Logan, after a long geological survey,
most admirably conducted, proved that the coal
measures of South Wales are 10,000 or 12,000
feet thick, and contain altogether 84 feet of coal
in seams of workable thickness, the most of

Geological Aspects of the Question. 55

which, lie near the base. Mr. Yivian assumes,
apparently, by nothing more than conjecture,
that 60 out of the 84 feet on an average may he
taken as available over the whole area !■

Mr. Hull may have deducted too much for
denudation, and possibly too much for depth;
but Mr. Hull’s is an estimate — Mr. Yivian’s is
no more than a guess. And, of course, when
Mr. Yivian asserts that South Wales can supply
all England for 500 years, he means at the
present rate of consumption, which is quite
beside the question. The question is, how long
will South Wales supply us at the present price
with the present growing demand ?

56

The Coal Question.

CHAPTER IY.

OP THE COST OP COAL MINING.

The difficulty and cost of winning and working
coal-mines form an aspect of the question that
obviously contains the solution of the whole.

In a free industrial system, such as we are
developing and assisting to spread, everything is
a question of cost. "We have heard of moral
and physical impossibilities, hut we ought to he
aware that there are also commercial impossibili-
ties. We must ask, in undertaking a work, not
whether it can be done, or is physically possible,
but whether it will pay to do it — whether it is
commercially possible. The works of the two
Brunels were, in a mechanical point of view, at
least as successful and wonderful as those of the
Stephensons ; hut, commercially speaking, they
were disastrous failures, which no one would
have undertaken had the consequences been seen.
Commerce and industry cannot he carried on but
by gain — by a return exceeding the outlay.

Of the Cost of Coal Mining. 57

Now, in coal-mining, we must discriminate
the physical and commercial possibility. The
second presupposes the first, but does not follow
from it. The question is a twofold one : — Firstly,
is it physically possible to drive our coal-mines
to the depth of 4,000, 5,000, or 6,000 feet ? and,
secondly, is it commercially possible when in
other parts of the world coal is yet being worked
in the light of day ? The very existence of
Britain, as a great nation, is bound up in these
questions.

Now I apprehend that there is not the least
danger of our reaching any fixed limit of deep
mining, where physical impossibility begins. In
mines already 2,000 or 2,500 feet deep, there is
no special difficulty felt in going deeper. But
we must consider the matter a little, because the
Quarterly . Review has confidently asserted that
2,500 feet is the limit, 1 * and Mr. Hull, after an
express inquiry into the matter, thinks that 4,000
may be taken as the limit. 3 It has often been
suggested that the increase of temperature of
the earth’s crust as we descend into it will prove
an insuperable obstacle, and Mr. Hull and others
have been inclined to hold, that beyond a depth

1 Vul. CX. p. 329.

! Coal-fields, &e. 2d Ed. p. 219.

58

The Coal Question.

of 4,000 or 5,000 feet the temperature will en-
tirely prevent further sinking.

The increase of temperature varies in different
mines from one degree in 85 to one degree in
88 feet. The increase in the deep Monkwear-
mouth Pit was one degree for 60 feet ; but the
observations of Mr. Astley in the sinking of the
Dukinfield Deep Pit showed an average increase
of one degree in 83 feet, nearly the lowest rate
known. If with Mr. Hull we take one degree in
70 feet as a safe average rate of increase, we
easily form the following table, starting from the
depth of 50 feet from the surface, at which depth
in this country an uniform temperature of about
50° Pahr. is found to exist.

Depth in
feet.

Increase of
temperature
of rock.

Actual tem-
perature of
rock.

50

0°

50°

1,000

14°

64°

2,000

28°

78°

3,000

42°

92°

4,000

56°

106°

5,000

71°

121°

The air in mines, independently of the rock, is
also warmer than at the surface, owing to its

59

Of the Cost of Coal Mining.

greater density ; for just as in ascending a moun-
tain the barometer falls and the air grows rare
and cold, so in descending a mine the barometer
rises and the air grows warmer. The barometer,
roughly speaking, varies about an inch for every
1,000 feet of elevation, and the temperature about
one degree for every 300 feet. On these data,
the following table is roughly calculated : —

Depth in
feet.

Height c.f
Barometer.

Increase of
temperature of
air.

Actual tempe-
rature of
air.

0

30-0

0°

50°

1,000

31'0

3 J

53°

2,000

32-0

7 J

57°

3,000

33-0

10°

60°

4,000

34-0

13°

63°

5,000

35-0

IT 3

67°

If air, then, of the temperature of 50° at the
surface descend 5,000 feet, it will acquire the
temperature of 67°. The rocks at that depth will
have the temperature of 121°, and will therefore
warm the air as it circulates through the mine
up to their own temperature. But Mr. Hull has
fallen into a very evident mistake in addins
together the increments of temperature of the

60

The Coal Question.

air and rocks. He makes the temperature, for
instance, at a depth of 4,000 feet, to he 120° - 08
as follows : —

Invariable temperature of surface .... 50 o, 5

Increase due to depth 56°'42

Increase due to density of air 13°' 16

Resulting temperature (sum) 120°’08

On the contrary, even at 5,000 feet deep, the
mperature will not exceed 121°, the tempera-
ture of the rock, and at 4,000 feet it will not
exceed 106°. It may he reduced, too, by plen-
tiful ventilation, or by letting out in the mine
air compressed and cooled at the surface, as is
done in the new coal-cutting machines. Now,
as men can work at temperatures exceeding 100°,
we are not likely to encounter the physical limit
of sinking on this account.

But the cost of sinking and working deep pit s is
quite another matter. The growing temperature
will enervate, if it does not stop the labourers.
Thus it is stated 1 that in one Cornish mine men
work in an atmosphere varying from 110° to
120° Eahr. But then they work only for twenty
minutes at a time, with nearly naked bodies, and
cold water frequently thrown over them. They
sometimes lose eight or ten pounds in weight

1 Report of Commission on Health of Mines, 1805.

Of the Cost of Coal Mining.

61

during a day’s work. Much increased ventilation

will be a matter of expense and difficulty; the

hardening' of the coal and rocks will render
1 " 1 “ ■ ■ — —

he wing mor e costly; creeps and subsidences of
the strata will he unavoidable, and will crush a
large portion of the coal or render it inacces-
sible ; while explosions, fires, floods, and the
hundred unforeseen accidents and disappoint-
ments to which mining is always subject, will
lie as a burden on the whole enterprise, a risk
which no assurance company will venture upon.
In addition to these special difficulties, the whole
capital and current expenditure of the mine
naturally grows in a higher proportion than the
depth. The sinking of the shaft becomes a long
and costly matter ; both the capital thus sunk
has to be redeemed and in terest upon it paid .
ThiT engine powers for raising water, coals,
miners, &c., increase, and, beyond all, the careful
ventilation and management of the mine render a
large staff of mechanics, viewers, and attendants
indispensable.

Much may he done by working larger areas
from the same shaft ; by forming consolidated
companies for economical drainage ; by perfect-
ing machinery, and organizing labour to contend
with the growing cost. But increased areas and

62

The Goal Question.

distances of working, tliongh comparatively di-
minishing the capital expense of the shafts end
. works above ground, will increase the current
expe nses of drainage, veritikfium, and gener al
aTTt> |f maintenance.

v A full analysis of the detailed accounts of a
number of collieries of various depths would
throw great light on this question, and might go
far to solve the question of England’s future
career. But private commercial accounts are
shrouded in such impenetrable closeness, that no
individual inquirers can hope to gain the use of
them. Even the several Parliamentary Com-
mittees, in their prolonged inquiries into the
coal trade some thirty years ago, were con-
tinually frustrated by Mr. Buddie and other
mining engineers, who declined to communicate
information known to them professionally and
confidentially. The investigation of such a sub-
ject might perhaps be best undertaken by a
Committee of the British Association, or some
other learned Society.

An account of the South Hetton Colliery
establishment, a recent and well-arranged mine,
throws light on this subject. It is published in
a little work of the Traveller's Library ,' remark-

Our Coal and our Coal-pits. London ; 1853.

Of the Cost of Coal Mining. 63

able for tbe amount of information it contains on
the subject of coal.

Of 529 men employed in or about the colliery,
140 only are hewers of coal, representing the
productive power of the establishment. We may
divide the staff as follows : —

Hewers of coal 140

Putters, screeners, &e 227

Employed in administration and maintenance

of mine 123

Boys, variously employed 39

The “ putters,” “ screeners,” and others, to the
number of 227, are occupied in pushing the
coal along the tramways from the hewer to the
shaft ; in raising it to the surface ; screening it,
and removing the stones, and, finally, loading it
into the railway waggon or ship’s hold. They
represent, as it were, the trading part of the
community, while the administration represents
the government ; consisting of a manager, view-
ers, engineers, clerks, and a surgeon ; with a
great number of joiners, sawyers, enginewrights,
smiths, masons, carters, waggon-wrights, and
common labourers, as well as ventilators, shifters,
foremen, and others of responsible duties under-
ground ; all occupied in keeping the mine, the
ventilation, machinery, engines, and the works
generally, in repair.

64 The Coal Question.

Now, if coal were quarried at the surface, and
wheeled straight away, each hewer would scarcely
require more than one subsidiary labourer. In a
deep mine we find that nearly three subsidiary
labourers are required, so that four only accom-
plish what two would do at the surface, to say
nothing of the timber and other materials con-
sumed, and the great capital sunk in the shaft,
engines, and works c f the deep mine.

As mines become deeper and more extended,
the system of management necessary to facilitate
the working and diminish the risk of accidents,
must become more and more complicated. The
work is not of a nature to be made self-acting,
and capable of execution by machinery. Even
in the "West Ardsley Colliery, belonging to the
patentees of the coal-cutting machine, who na-
turally carry out its use to the utmost possible
extent, this machine is found 1 to diminish the
staff only ten per cent. The labour saved is only
that of twenty-seven hewers, while other branches
of the staff must be rather increased than di-
minished. So different, too, are the conditions
of coal-mining, that in many collieries the use of
coal-cutting machines is perhaps impracticable.

The deeper a mine the more fiery it in general

1 Prof, H. D. Rogers, in Good Words, April, 1864, p. 338.

Of the Cost of Coal Mining. 65

becomes. Carburetted gas, distilled from the
coal in. the course of geological ages, lies pent
up in the fissures at these profound depths, and
is ever liable to blow off and endanger the lives
of hundreds of persons. It was supposed that
George Stephenson and Sir H. Davy had dis-
covered a true safety lamp. But, in truth, this
very ingenious invention is like the compass that
Sir Thomas More describes in his Utopia as given
to a distant people. It gave them such confi-
dence in navigation that they were “ farther from
care than danger.”

1ST o lamp has been made , or, perhaps, can be
made, that will prevent accidents when a feeder
of gas is tapped, or a careless miner opens his
lamp, or a drop of water cracks a heated glass,
or a boy stumbles and breaks his lamp. The
miner’s lamp, in fact, is never a safety lamp,
except when carefully used in a perfectly ven-
tilated mine. Long experience shows that
perfect ventilation is the only sure safeguard
against explosion. But it is no easy matter to
ventilate near a hundred miles of levels, inclines,
stalls, and goaves in a fiery mine.

The amount of drainage required in deepening
our mines is another point of the greatest im-
portance. The coal-measures themselves, con-
i'

66

The Coal Question.

taining many beds of clay and sliale, are dry
enougli in general, except wliere interrupted by
faults which allow the water to penetrate.
Thus, the lower parts of deep mines will in
general be dry enough, but the passage through
the overlying Permian and New Red Sandstone
beds may often be extremely costly, or almost
impossible.

“ In all the sinkings through the Magnesian
Limestone, feeders of water, more or less consi-
derable, are met with at a certain distance from
the surface, derived not so much by percolation
through the mass of the rock — for this can obtain
to a small extent only — but collected in and
coming off the numerous gullets and fissures
which everywhere intersect and divide the mass
of strata. If the shaft be not drained by pump-
ing or otherwise, the water from these feeders
rises to a point which remains, save in excep-
tional cases, constant. . . . Immediately under-
lying the limestone is a bed of sandstone of very
variable thickness, which, when exposed to the
action of the atmosphere, disintegrates rapidly,
and has hence acquired its local name of £ friable
yellow sandstone.’ It is in sinking through this
bed of rapidly decomposing sandstone that such
great engineering difficulties have been encoun-

Of the Cost of Coed Mining. 67

tered, owing to tlie enormous quantity of water
which, in some cases is met with, more especially
if the bed be thick and much below the level of
saturation.”

“ A. very full account of the sinking of the
Murton Winning is given by Mr. Potter. 1 . . .
Nearly 10,000 gallons of water per minute
were pumped out of this bed by engines exceed-
ing in the aggregate 1,500 horse-power. The
circumstances which favour the remarkable ac-
cumulation of water in the limestone, and the
rapidity with which it is drained off into pits
sunk through it, are due to several causes, some
of which are peculiar to this formation, and per-
haps to this district. They are : —

“1. The arrangement of the beds of stratifi-
cation.

“2. The contour of the country.

“ 3. The permeability of this formation to
water.” 2

In the sinking of Pemberton’s Pit at Monk-
wearmouth, a stratum of freestone sand at the
base of the Magnesian Limestone poured 8,000

1 Trans, of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol. V.
s Brit. Assoc. Report, 1863, pp. 726, 727.

68

The Coal Question.

gallons of water per minute into the sinking.
And when this flood of water had been overcome
by an engine of 180 or 200 horse-power, and had
been “tubbed back,” a new “ feeder ” was met
at the depth of 1,000 feet, requiring fresh pumps,
and an additional outlay of money. 1 The shaft
was commenced in May, 1826 ; it was continued
for eight and a half years before the first work-
able coal was reached ; and it was only in April,
1846, twenty years afterwards, that the enter-
prise was proved successful by the winning of the
“ Hutton Seam.” The South Hetton and Great
Hetton pits were also very costly, difficult win-
nings, on account of the quicksands and irrup-
tions of water. And the winning of a pit at
Haswell, in the county of Durham, through the
Magnesian Limestone and the underlying sand,
was found impracticable for a like reason, in
spite of engines capable of raising 26,700 tons of
water per diem. 2

In the continuous working of pits, even where
“ tubbing ” is used to keep the water out of the
shaft as much as possible, the quantity of water
is not unusually seven or eight times as great as
that of the coal raised. At the Friar’s Goose
Colliery, near Gateshead, 6,000 tons of water are

1 Our Coal and our Coal Pits, p. 113. » Ibid. p. 115.

Of the Cost of Coal Mining.

69

raised from the mine every day, about twenty
times as much as the weight of the coal ex-
tracted. In some, such as Percy Main and
Wylam collieries, it reaches thirty times the
weight of the coal.

Now, when it becomes necessary to sink, not
only through the Magnesian Limestone, hut
through the New Red Sandstone, in order to
reach new supplies of coal, may not the water he
found overpowering ? Mr. Hull, in a valuable
paper “ On the New Red Sandstone and Permian
Pormations, as Sources of Water-supply for
Towns,” 1 has noticed the extremely porous and
absorbent nature of the New Red Sandstone.
“ Rain rapidly sinks into it, leaving a dry soil,”
and “ under and around aR the towns built on
this formation (or on the Permian) there lie na-
tural reservoirs of pure water.” Now, when we
come to sink two or three thousand feet through
such formations, may not the water prove an
insuperable obstacle ?

A question of secondary importance concerns
the limit of thinness of workable coal seams.
This is, of course, a question of the cost of
mining. It is found that, at the present price of
coal, it is not profitable to Avork seams of less

1 Manchester Memoirs, 3d series, 1861-2. Vol. II. pp. 256, 257.

70 The Coal Question.

than 18 or 24 inches thickness. The reason is
obvious. In working a four-foot seam little rock
has to he mined, since the spaces from which the
coal has been removed furnish the levels and
communications of the mine. In working a
two- foot seam, however, large quantities of roc k
have to be removed in addition to the coal, and
wh ile the cost is hardly less than in a four-foot
seam, th e produce of coal is only one half. A
one-foot seam, again, would be worked at a very
great cost, and would furnish les s than one four th
of t he produce of a four-foot seam . Either the
larger seam must yield extraordinary profits, or
else the thinner seam cannot be worked.

In estimates of existing coal, 24 or 18 inches is
taken as the limit of workable seams ; how will
this limit be affected by probable changes in the
conditions of coal-mining ? A considerable ad-
vance in the price of coal will, of course, enable
thinner seams to be worked with profit. Thus,
to some extent, the rise of prices will be slack-
ened. The higher the price rises, the more
thoroughly will the coal-measures be worked, and
the more coal becomes workable. As, however,
the high price of coal constitutes the evil of ex-
haustion, the dreaded results are only somewhat
mitigated, not prevented. And it would be

71

Of the Cost of Coal Mining.

wholly erroneous to suppose that when once the
thicker seams of a coal district have been worked
out, we can readily, at a future time, work out
the thinner seams, when the increased price of
coal warrants it. T or it must he observed, that
a very large part of the cost of mining consists in
the cost of draining, ventilation, and mainte-
nance of the shaft, and works at the hank, which
we may call the general mining expenses. Now,
when these expenses are undertaken for the pur -
pose of wo rking a thick and valuable seam, it is
often possible to work thi n seams of 18 or 24
inches without any considerable increase in the
general expenses. In short, the thick seam pays :
the general expenses of the m ine as well as its !
own cost o f hewing , while it is sufficie nt, if the ‘j
thin seam leaves a smal l profit on the expenses of
hewing only. But the price of coal must rise in ;
a very extreme degree, tha t an un worked thin 1
seam should, at a future ti me, pay the general h
c osts of drainage‘s vent ilation, and maintenance, j
as well as the cost of hewing.

The same is true of immense masses of coal
left underground during the former working of
mines, as small or crushed coal, as pillars and
harriers, or as outlying portions rendered difficult
to mine by faults, or other mining troubles. If

72

The Coal Question.

such portions of coal could not pay for removal
when the mine was in full working efficiency,
they cannot pay the whole costs of restoring and
maintaining the mine in a workable condition,
not at least until the price of coal has risen
manifold.

All then that we can hope from thin seams, or
abandoned coal, is a retardation of the rise of
price after a considerable rise has already taken
place. This will hardly prevent the evils appre-
hended from exhaustion.

Nor will the use of the coal-cutting machine
much affect this question. By reducing the cost
of hewing and the waste of coal in the “ kirv-
ing,” or cut made by the hewer, it will, un-
doubtedly, to some extent, allow thinner seams
to be worked. At the same time, it will not
affect the cost of removing large masses of pro-
fitless rock, which is essential in working thin
seams, nor the general cost of the maintenance of
the mine. If seams of 18 inches are now occa-
sionally workable, the coal-cutting machine may
reduce the limit a few inches ; but it is evident
that seams of less than 12 inches could never he
worked while the price of coal remained at all
tolerable.

Coal-mining is a fair fight with difficulties, and

Of the Cost of Coal Mining. 73

just as the balance inclines between the diffi-
culties and the powers we possess to overcome
them, will the cost of coal and the prospects of
this country oscillate. What we can do to
cheapen extraction, indeed, is chiefly effected by
turning the powers of coal against itself, by
multiplying steam power to pump and wind, and
cut and draw' the coal. But then the greater

■Zj

part of the work within the colliery is of a kind
that cannot he executed by machinery, just as the
building of houses, or the digging of holes,
never has been, and scarcely can he, done by
machinery.

But be the difficulties what they may, we
would have ingenuity and energy enough to
overcome them, were the question one of a
simple absolute amount of difficulty. But in
reality we must consider our mines not by
themselves, hut in comparison with those of
other countries. Our main branches of iron in-
dustry grew up at places like Wednesbury, in
South Staffordshire, “where there being but
little earth lying over the measure of coal, the
workmen rid off the earth and dig the coal under
their feet, and carry it out in wheelbarrows, there
being no need for -windlass, rope, or corf.” 1

1 Dr. Plot’s Natural History of Staffordshire, quoted in the “ History
of Wedneshurv," p. 101.

74

The Coal Question.

Our industry will certainly last and grow
until our mines are commonly sunk 2,000 or
3,000, or even 4,000 feet deep. But when this
time comes, the States of North America will
still he working coal in the light of day, quarry-
ing it in the hanks of the Ohio, and running it
down into boats alongside. The question is, how
soon will our mines approach the limit of com-
mercial possibility, and fail to secure us any longer
that manufacturing supremacy on which we are
learning to be loholly dependent ?

Of the Price of Coal.

75

CHAPTER V.

OF THE PRICK OF COAL.

“ Cheapness and goodness,” said Yarranton,
“ is, and always will be, the great master and
comptroller of trade,” and the reader will see
that the whole question of the exhaustion of our
mines is a question of the cost of coal. All
commerce, in short, is a matter of price. “Will
it pay to do this at this price ? ” or, “ Will it
pay better to do this here at this price or there
at that price ? ’ ’ Such are the leading questions
which govern every commercial undertaking in a
free system of industry.

The exhaustion of our mines will be marked
pari passio by a rising cost or value of coal ; and
when the price has risen to a certain amount
comparatively to the price in other countries,
our main branches of trade will be doomed. It
will be well, therefore, to inquire whether there
has been any recent serious rise in the price of
coal such as would be the sign of incipient ex-

76

The Coal Question.

haustion. Had a considerable recent rise occurred,
as I have beard asserted, it might be argued that
no such evil results have followed as alarmists
prophesy, and then the optimist would conclude
that, perhaps, after all, “ dear coal ” is not the
fatal thing some suppose ; this country may sur-
mount that evil, it will be said, as it has sur-
mounted worse evils.

From what reliable accounts I have been able
to meet with, it is certain that there has been no
such recent rise of price as could at all operate
as a check upon our industry. Yet it is certain
that coal has been cheaper in the past than it
can again be, and that in the Great Northern
market the growth of demand during the last
century has been accompanied by a considerable
but indefinite rise of price.

Where coal, indeed, used formerly to be had
almost for the asking, it now bears a fair price.
In the palmy day of the Staffordshire “ Thick
Coal” the price of the best large coal was 6s.
per ton of 21 cwts., and 120 lbs. to the cwt., or
5s. 4 d. per ton of 2,240 lbs. Coal was a drug
about Birmingham, “ so much so, as to cause the

coalowners to give great extra weight

There are many other veins at present not
thought worth getting, or from one to three

77

Of the Trice of Coal.

yards thick; inferior coals are sold at 3s. per
ton, and from that upwards, in proportion to
their quality; the small coals, for working
engines, are sold from Is. to Is. 6d. per ton ; the
supply produced for the manufactures of the
country would always be sufficient, in my opinion,
without increasing the present price, as there are
many new collieries now opening.” 1

The anticipations of the Ironmaster who gave
this opinion before the Committee of 1800 have
not proved true. The price of best coal in Staf-
fordshire is now nine shillings or more per ton,
and many writers concur in stating that the
magnificent “Thick Coal” of South Stafford-
shire lias been either used or wasted away. The
wonderful “black country” already leans for its
supplies of coal and ore upon neighbouring
parts ; 2 it seems to be already overshadowed by
the approaching decline of prosperity. “ He
that liveth longest, let him fetch fire furthest,”
was a proverb quoted by Dudley, 3 two and a half
centuries ago, with reference to the lamentable
waste of the Thick Coal, and now the force of
the proverb is becoming apparent.

1 Evidence of Alex. Raby. First Report on Coal Trade, 1800,
pp. 76, 77.

2 See Cliap. XV.

3 Metallum Martis, p. S.

78 The Coal Question.

The late strike of Staffordshire miners was
occasioned by the high price of coal. The
activity of the iron trade for the last year or
two had led to several advances in the price of
coal and rate of wages ; but though the price of
iron remained pretty high, it was found the trade
could not bear the cost of coal. To prevent
injury to the staple industry of the district, the
coal proprietors, somewhat arbitrarily, determined
to reduce the price of coal by cutting down the
wages of the miners, and in this they have been
at least temporarily successful. But it is feared
that the interruption of business occasioned by
the strike may have already contributed to for-
ward that migration of the iron trade to the
newer coal-fields which must soon take place.

It is almost impossible to get such general and
uniform statements of the price of coal as would
warrant us in drawing comparisons over long
periods of time. The variations in the quality,
size, and distance of supply constantly affect the
price, independently of duties and other obstacles.
Almost all the quotations of prices refer to the
London market, and are useless, because the
prices there are not only affected by freights, but
have been burdened, more or less, by duties and
charges of a most complicated character.

79

Of the Price of Coal.

The only series of prices I have been able to
make out gives the average price of the best large
coal as put free on board at Newcastle, and the
other shipping places of the North. The first
two prices (1771 and 1791) are derived from the
Report of the Select Committee of the House of
Commons on the Coal Trade in 1830 (p. 7). The
prices of 1801 — 1851, are from a table of yearly
prices published by Mr. Porter, in his “ Progress
of the Nation” (p. 277), and are the average
shipping prices as returned to the Coal Exchange
in London under Act of Parliament. The last
price (1860) is an average computed for the
General Committee of the Coal Trade of New-
castle, and communicated to the Mining Record
Office. 1

Average Shipping Price
of Newcastle Coal

Year.

s.

d.

1771

5

4

per ton.

1794

7

6

1801

10

4

1811

13

0

1821

12

8

1831

12

4

!>>

1841

10

6

It

1850

9

6

»

1860

9

0

This is probably as good and comparable a
series of prices as could be got ; yet it is very

1 Mineral Statistics for 1S60, p. xxiii.

80

The Coal Question.

difficult to draw inferences from it beyond the
contradiction of any recent considerable rise.
The great rise of price up to 1811 was more or
less due to the depreciation of gold and paper
currency, or to the other causes, whatever they
may have been, of the great general rise of prices.
The subsequent fall is, of course, partly due to
the restoration of our currency, and to the other
debatable causes of a general fall of prices. 1

There are, however, at least two other circum-
stances not to be lost sight of in comparing early
and late prices of coal.

Tirstly, there is the limitation of the vend, an
arrangement which used to exist among the coal
proprietors of the North, to limit the amount
sold by any colliery, in order that each colliery
might have a share of the trade proportional to
its capabilities. This combination maintained
itself at intervals for about two centuries, and
was much complained of because it was supposed
to raise the price of coal. It may have had some
effect, especially upon those better kinds of coal
of which the price is quoted.

i The comparison in the First Edition of the change of price of coal
with the average change of price of commodities was erroneous, owing
to a numerical oversight. The fall of prices between 1794 and 1860
was in the ratio of 100 to 81. See Journal of the Statistical Society,
June 1865, p. 294.

Of the Price of Coal.

81

Secondly, there is the practice of screening I
coals, whereby a considerable portion of the coal
raised at the beginning of the century used to be
separated out and burnt as waste, the whole cost
of raising the coal being paid in the price of the
large coal sold. Though coals are still generally

screened, the “ seconds7 r ‘‘ nuts,” and even the

“"dead small,” or “slack,” are usuallv sold tor

i

manufacturing purposes at prices proportional)

to the size of the coal. The total price thusj

1

returned is increased by more than is represented

Ly

in the price of the large coal.

Both the limitation of the vend and the prac-
tice of screening would thus tend to raise the
earlier quotations of price of large coal, as com-
pared with late quotations, and thus disguise the
real rise of price due to the growing demand and
the depth of the mines.

I take it, therefore, to be pretty certain that
the cost of the best quality of Newcastle coal
has been considerably more than doubled within
a century by the growing depth of the collieries.
It is not to be said that trade is much affected
by the price of the very best coals, which are
chiefly valued for household purposes. But from
the price of such coal we learn what we should
have to pay were all coals drawn from the depths

G

82

The Coal Question.

of 1,000 or 2,000 feet or more. The mines of
South Wales, Scotland, and Yorkshire are yet
shallow, and the coal cheap enough. The cost of
the coal, especially, which supports the great and
rising iron trade in South Wales and Scotland,
is only four or five shillings per ton.

The following are some returns of the price
of coal published by Mr. Hunt in the Mineral
Statistics for 1860 : —

Description of Coal. Trice per Ton.

s. (1.

Newcastle House Coal 0 O

Steam -,...80

Gas, Coking, and Manufacturing 5 6

Derbyshire .... Best Coal 00

Common 6 6

Cost of Getting .... fjv. to 5 6

North Staffordshire . Best 9 2

Common 6 0

Cost of Getting . . . S». 6 d. to 4 6

Lancashire .... Best Coal 63

Lately 5 6

South Wales and Mon-
mouthshire .... Large Coal 66

Small 4 6

Scotland Average 4 0

Cost of Getting 2 8

The average cost of getting coal throughout
the country was stated to he 4s. 10 d. per ton, not
including profits, rent, and other charges.

In the very various prices of coal from the
several collieries of the Newcastle district, we

Of the Price of Coal.

83

have evidence of the rise of price due to the
depth of mines. Shipping prices of coal are
given in full detail in the Report of the Com-
mittee of 1838 (p. 240) ; and taking the coals
classed as Newcastle Wallsend only, we find the
price varying from Gs. Gd. to 11s. Gd., the nuts
and small coal ranging down to -is. 9 d. It is
obvious that the difference of fire shillings per
ton in Wallsend coal must either he absorbed by
the expenses of deep mining, or else it must make
the fortune of the proprietors or workers of the
mines. That in some cases prodigious profits are
made, as in the case of the original Wallsend
mine, is well known. But this cannot usually
be the case, otherwise the wide areas of land yet
known to contain untouched seams of coal of the
finest qualities, would at once be broken up by
speculators, who are never wanting. That deep
mines are so deliberately opened is a sufficient
proof that the highest prices obtained are, taking
all mining risks- and charges into account, only an
average equivalent for the capital invested. These
deep pits can only be undertaken at present in
search of coal of the finest household quality.
The Monkwearmouth Pit was sunk to win the
Hutton seam, which yields coal of the highest
possible character. The Dukinfield Deep Pit was

g 2

84 The Coal Question.

lui

undertaken to follow the celebrated Lancashire
“ Black Mine,” a four feet seam of the finest
coal, selling for 10s. per ton at the pit’s mouth,
th e small coal returning 5s. 6 cl. per ton.

The high prices, which are necessary in order
to tempt speculators to undertake deep mining,
afford a rough hut sure indication of the effect of
depth upon the cost of coal. When the general
de pth of coal workings has increase d to 2,000
f eet, little or no coal will he sold for less than
10s. per ton, and the choice large coal will have
risen to a much higher price. Our iron and
general manufacturing industries will have to
contend with a nearly double cost of fuel. And
when with the growth of our trade and the
course of time our mines inevitably reach a
depth of 3,000 or 4,000 feet, the increasing cost
of fuel will he an incalculable obstacle to our
further progress.

Of British Invention.

85

CHAPTER VI.

OF BRITISH INVENTION.

The history of discovery and invention, like
history in general, can never be the matter of
an exact science. The extension of the sciences
and arts is the last thing that can he subjected
to rigorous laws. But. in a long course of pro-
gress, like that which marks the rise of civiliza-
tion in England, we may observe tendencies, not
free from exception, of an instructive kind, and
bearing powerfully upon the general subject of
our inquiry.

The usefulness of Britain greatly depends upon
the arts she has contributed for the use of man-
kind, and her own pre-eminence in the use of
those arts. But an Englishman who goes with
the current of insular opinion, is too apt to
assume that Britain is great in everything. There
is no discrimination in popular opinion. As
Shakespeare is the acknowledged poet of modern

86

The Coal Question.

times, so Francis Bacon is supposed to be the
philosopher who brought about the revival of
knowledge and the arts. Now, though we have
poets and philosophers, works and discoveries,
which in their own way are unrivalled, we should
remember that other nations have their triumphs
in their way unrivalled. And if we at present
possess a certain leading and world-wide in-
fluence, it is not due to any general intellec-
tual superiority, but to the union of certain
happy mental qualities with our peculiar mate-
rial resources.

We may observe, in the first place, that almost
all the arts we practised in England, until within
the last century, were of continental origin.
England, until lately, was young and inferior in
the arts.

Secondly, we may observe that almost all the
arts and inventions we have of late contributed,
spring from our command of coal.

Such generalizations are very subject to excep-
tion. Roger Bacon is an illustrious exception,
and it seems likely that there were other English-
men in his days of lofty talents. Still, they drew
their education and information from the Conti-
nent, and they lived in such a time and place
that their works were unappreciated, and left no

of n ritish Invention. 87

mark in the creation of the arts. Francis Bacon
has usurped much of the fame due to Roger
Bacon. No one the least acquainted with the
history of science in Europe, can suppose that
Francis Bacon gave rise to the sciences and arts
which were rising and flourishing in Italy, and
France, and Germany, before his time. Great
as was Bacon in many ways, we cannot regard
him as more than an expounder of the scientific
tendency of his age. And after the severe and
partially true exposure of his claims by Baron
Liebig,! it is to be hoped that we shall give up
some of our absurd national fallacies concern-
ing him.

How much of the arts we owe to continental
nations, may be learnt from a simple enumera-
tion of our principal debts. It is in Mr. Smiles’
volumes that the history of the arts in Britain
has been brought to our notice. These volumes
seem to me a most valuable contribution to our
general history, and the facts adduced by him
clearly establish that until about the middle of
last century we were wholly behindhand in all
that relates to skilled industry, and were justly
treated by the great advanced nations of the
Continent — by Italy, Spain, France, and Holland

1 Macmillan's Magazine. June. July. J.SG3.

88 The Goal Question.

— as poor, uncultivated, but proud islanders.

“ England,” be says, “ was then regarded prin-
cipally as a magazine for the supply of raw
materials, >vhich were carried away in foreign
ships, and partly returned to us in manufac-
tures, worked up by foreign artisans. We grew
wool for Elanders, as America grows cotton for
England now. Even the little manufactured
at home was sent to the Low Countries to be
dyed.”'

Generalizations on this subject, I have said,
are open to exceptions. It is not true that
England made no contributions to the arts down
to the time of the steam-engine, and the coal-
blast furnace ; but I know of only one exception,

. the knitting-frame of William Lee, a truly sin-
gular invention of the year 1589. It is favour-
ably mentioned by Sturtevant in his curious
treatise on Metallurgy of the year 1612. Its
solitary character is shown by the fact that an
Act prohibiting the export of stocking-frames
was passed as early as 1696, but that no other
Act of the same kind was thought needful until
1750. It was not till 1774 that a third Act of
the kind made a beginning of our general system
0 f prohibiting the export of machinery, con-

1 Smiles’ Engineers, vol. i. Pref. p. v.

Of British Invention.

89

trived to protect our rising success in the cotton,
linen, and other manufactures. In this mis-
taken and illiberal system we persevered until
August, 1813.

Mining is an art in which we are now at least
eminent. But a century ago, as most English-
men will he surprised to learn, our engines
and contrivances in common use were only
those familiar to the Germans 100 or 200
years before.

The horse-gin, the double reversing water-
wheel, the chain-pump, ventilating contrivances,
such as bellows, fans, lamps, furnaces, together
with the underground wheeled carriage, were
introduced from Germany, probably by the
German miners brought over in considerable
numbers during the reigns of Elizabeth and
the Stuarts. These inventions, in fact, were
described in the work of Agricola published in
1556, and this writer was acquainted with such
valuable contrivances as the fly-wheel, and the
crank and beam. 1 Ilooson, an early writer on
coal-mining, expressly says, “ We do not know of
anything material or useful that has been found
out for the better, than what has been left us by

1 Taylor’s Archa?ology of the Coal Trade, p. 186, in Memoirs of the
British Archaeological Association, 1858.

90

The Coal Question.

our forefathers ; hut rather much impaired by
neglect and idleness.” 1

Gunpowder is an almost indispensable agent
in mining, and was used by the Germans as
early as 1613. Its use in blasting was intro-
duced into this country in 1665, and, according
to Robert Bald, 2 the ancient method of drilling
and wedging rocks open by the stook an d
feathers , without powder, was still used in Scot-
land at the beginning of last century.

Metallurgy is a kindred art that we now carry
out on a vast scale ; but, with the exception of
the processes depending on the superior abun-
dance and excellence of our coal, both the theory
and practice of metallurgy are mainly due to the
Germans. Dr. Percy, in the preface to his im-
portant work on Metallurgy, has drawn attention
to the fact that we have scarcely any literature
on the subject, and must draw our information
from the two leading works of Agricola in 1556,
or Karsten in 1831, or from the large collection
of monographs, periodical publications, and com-
plete treatises on Metallurgy, with which the
German language abounds. Even the Swedes,
Scheele and Berzelius, have made greater contri-

1 Hooson’s Miner's Dictionary, 1747, quoted l>y Taylor, p. TS7.

2 Scotch (Joal Trade, p, 12.

Of British Invention. 91

butions to the art than individual Englishmen
can boast of.

Many of the arts of working iron were drawn
from the Continent. It will he shown in the
chapter on the Iron Trade, that the first efforts
towards the erection of our great iron manufac-
ture were made by German metallurgists. It
v r as Godfrey Box, of Liege, who erected at Dart-
ford, in 1590, the first iron mill for slitting bars ;
and from the slitting-mill was no doubt derived
the notion of the rolling-mill as used by Cort.
Yarranton went to Saxony to learn the process of
tinning iron plates, as carried on there with great
profit, and he was allowed to engage workmen
and inspect all the steps of the manufacture.
The making of clasp-knives was introduced into
Sheffield in 1650, by Blemish workmen, such
knives having been previously known as jocte-
legs, 1 from Jacques de Liege, a celebrated foreign
cutler. 2 The casting of iron cannon was a Erench
invention, introduced into Sussex in 1513, by
Peter Baude, a Erenchman, brought over by
Balph Hogge, the Sussex ironmaster, who also

1 Sec Bums “On the late Captain Grose’s Peregrinations.” “A
faulding jocteleg.” In some parts of Yorkshire a large clasp-knife is
still known as a “ jack-a-leg’s knife.”

2 Smiles' Industrial Biography, p. 08.

92

The Coal Question.

employed a Flemish gunsmith, Peter Van Collet,
to make his explosive shells. 1

Engineering was taught us by continental
nations until we developed our own new modes
of engineering with iron. The Dutch, having
redeemed their own country from the sea, were
masters of the art of embankment, drainage, and
inland navigation. The history of the works
carried out by them in our fens, of the skill,
capital, and labour they expended here, and the
precarious profits they carried back, is to be
found in Mr. Smiles’ volumes. 2 "We are reminded
of the part which we play in the railways, canals,
and public works of the United States and our
Colonies. Even as late as 1748, we owed to
Labelye, the Swiss architect, the reconstruction
of the south level of the Fens, and the building
of Westminster Bridge. 3 When a tidal engine
was required to pump water from the Thames
for the supply of London, Peter Morice, a Dutch-
man, was employed to erect it. 1

Scotland was even more backward than Eng-
land. When in 1708 windmills were wanted to
try and drain certain Scotch coal-mines, John

1 Smiles’ Industrial Biography, p. 33.

2 Lives of the Engineers, vol. i. pp. 39, 40.

3 Ibid. p. 66. 4 Ibid. Pref. p. ri.

Of British Invention. 93

Young, the millwright of Montrose, was found
to be the only man in the country who could
erect windmills. He had “ been sent at the
expense of that town to Holland, in order to
inspect the machinery of that country,” and “ it
was suggested that, if this millwright could not
he procured, application should be made to the
Mechanical Priest in Lancashire for InAadvice.” 1
In maritime enterprise we were always daring,
hut only of late have we been eminently expert
or successful. “At a time,” says Mr. Smiles, 2
“ when Spain, Holland, Prance, Genoa, and
Venice were great maritime powers, England
was almost without a fleet, the little trade which
it carried on with other countries being conducted
principally by foreigners. Our best ships were
also built abroad by the Venetians or the Danes,
but they were mostly of small tonnage, little
bigger than modem herring boats.”

The herring fishery was regarded both by
Holland and England as the “ chiefest trade
and gold-mine,” and “the 'way to winne
wealth.” It was thought to he a pure creation
of riches, and to nourish at the same time a race
of hardy seamen that are the pride and safety of

1 Bald, Scotch Coal Trade, p. 7.

■ Lives of the Engineers, vol. i. p. 276.

94

The Coal Question.

the kingdom. But it raised unutterable feelings
in English writers of a century or two ago, to
observe that the Dutch fished our own seas.
Holland, “not exceeded in quantity by Norfolk
and Suffolk, hath gotten the sea,” bitterly says
the author of The Trades' Increase. And when
we got herrings, we had to learn from the
Elemings how to cure them.

The Dutch, as is well known, were our prede-
cessors in trade. A writer of the year 1615 thus
speaks, “ Without love or anger, hut with admira-
tion of our neighbours, the now Sea Herrs, the
nation that get health out of their own sicknesse,
whose troubles begot their liberty, brought forth
their wealth, and brought up their strength, that
have, out of our leavings, gotten themselves a
living, out of our wants make their own supply
of trade and shipping there ; they coming in long
after us, equal us in those parts in all respects
of privilege and port ; that have devanced us so
farre in shipping that the Hollanders have more
than one hundred saile of shippes that use
those ports, continually going and returning,
and the chiefest matters they doe lade out-
ward be English commodities, as Tinne, Lead,
and Bailes, of such like stuffe, as are made at
Norwich.” 1

1 The Trades’ Increase, p. 7.

OfB ritish Invention.

95

Campbell was aware of their commercial su-
periority. “ By keeping their customs low,” he
says, “they have their warehouses always full
of goods and manufactures of every kind. . . .
Rough and raw materials they cleanse and sort ;
gross and bulky commodities they import in one
kind of vessels, divide and export them in others.
A low interest keeps the hulk of their cash in
trade; working cheap, and selling at a small
profit, secures them in continual employment.” 1
The Dutch, in short, understood the principles
and practice of commerce, and had a free and
far-spreading trade when we were yet sunk in
poverty and the fallacies of the mercantile and
restrictive systems. And it was the Venetians,
Jewish, and other foreign merchants of Lombard
Street, who laid the foundations of our vast
trading and monetary system.

AY bile we were so much inferior to continental
nations in the fundamental operations of trade
and industry, it is almost needless to observe,
that in the more luxurious aids of life we were
wholly indebted to them. “Our first cloth-
workers, silk-weavers, and lace-workers were
Drench and Blemish refugees. The brothers
Elers, Dutchmen, began the pottery manufac-

1 Campbell's Survey, vol. i. p. 15.

96

The Coal Question.

tiire ; Spillman, a German, erected the first
paper-mill at Dartford ; and Boomen, a Dutch-
man, brought the first coach into England.” 1
The name of the fabric, Brown Holland, shows
whence we derived it. The arts, indeed, of
weaving and whitening linen attained high per-
fection in Elanders and Harlem especially, while
the common processes of dyeing were wholly the
work of foreigners, chiefly Germans . 2

Erance was then, as now, supreme in many
little branches of manufacture, such as those of
glass, hats, paper, linen, sail-cloth, sword-blades,
scissors, and many steel “toys.” The “ running”
of such light articles fortunately could not be
prevented. We also drew from them “ wine,
brandy, linen, fine lace, fine cambricks, and cam-
brick lawns, to a prodigious value ; brocades,
velvets, and many other rich silk manufactures,
which are either run in upon us, or come by way
of Holland.” 3

Generally the advanced arts and knowledge
of continental nations seem to have been com-
municated to us without jealousy or reserve.

1 Smiles’ Engineers, vol. i. Pref. p. vi.

2 Barlow’s Cyclopaedia, p. 521.

3 Joshua Gee, The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered.
1738, 4th ed. p. 18.

Of British Invention.

97

Yarranton, for instance, in his tours of observa-
tion in Holland, enj oyed every facility. Sometimes
we resorted to deceit ; as when F oley, according
to one account, gained the art of splitting iron
from the Swedes, and Sir Thomas Lombe the
use of the water-frame in the silk manufacture.
Such achievements, when in our favour, are
treated as romantic and courageous adventures ;
but when foreigners now come prying into our
factories, forges, and chemical works, we are apt
to treat them as rogues.

Even the steam-engine cannot be claimed as
a purely indigenous invention. But before we
consider this point, or go on to enumerate the
undoubted contributions we have made, it is
necessary to discriminate the conditions of in-
vention.

There seem to be three essential conditions,
too often confused or overlooked : — Pirst, a dis-
tinct purpose, arising from an urgent need of
some new means of accomplishing' a given end.
Secondly, a new principle, or mode, by -which
it is to be accomplished. Thirdly, the material,
power, and skill for embodying this principle
in a successful machine, — in short, the con-
struction.

Por instance, as a maritime nation, we felt

n

98

The Coal Question.

during last century the most urgent need of some
certain method of determining the longitude of a
ship at sea : here was a strong purpose. Astro-
nomy pointed out several different principles on
which it might be done, the most convenient one
involving the use of a good time-keeper. It was
Harrison, of Liverpool, who, under the stimulus
of a large Government reward, invented the
ship’s chronometer, and supplied the material
construction of the method commonly employed.

Now, as regards the history of the steam-
engine, there is no doubt that an urgent need was
felt at the beginning of the seventeenth century
for a more powerful means of draining our mines.
Sir George Selby, in Parliament, said, as early as
1610, that “the coal-mines of Newcastle could
not hold out the .term of their lease of twenty-
one years.” 1 This was on account of the cost
or impossibility of draining them to any depth.
The terms in which the engine was described,
and the way in which it was actually used for
nearly two centuries, show that the raising of
water out of our mines was the all important ob-
ject aimed at — the first condition — the purpose.

The cheap coal, drawn from the self-same
mines, was to prove the material power or third

1 Taylor’s Archaeology of the Coal Trade, p. 186.

Of British Invention.

99

condition of the great invention ; ' but, in the
meantime, we needed a new natural principle of
action. Now candour obliges us to allow that
we owe this principle to science and to France.
It is true that the English writer Hugh Platte
had, in 1594, shown how the steam of boiling
water might be made to issue in a powerful jet,
sufficient to blow a fire. 1 But he probably owed
this notion to some of the works of practical
science and ingenuity which abounded at that
time on the Continent. No doubt Arago was
right in insisting 2 that Solomon de Caus, a
French engineer employed by King Charles, first
spread abroad in England scientific notions of
raising water by the expansive force of steam.
His work, “ Les Faisons des Forces Mouvantes,”
was first published in the year 1615, several
years before the era of Bacon’s Organum. A
print in this work showed a metallic globe, con-
taining water heated by a fire. A long, upright,
open pipe passed air-tight through the top of the
globe, and terminated in the water near the
bottom of the globe. The water, urged by the
expansive force of the steam within the globe, is

1 Jewell House of Art and Nature, No. 21. Loudon,
5 Life of Watt, 1839, p. 46.

H 2

100 The Coal Question.

represented as issuing forcibly from tbe top of
the pipe.

A second edition of the work appeared in 1624 ;
and in 1644 was published, at London, by Isaac
de Caus, a partial reprint, distinctly entitled,
“ Nouvelle Invention de lever I’JSau .” 1

Now, considering that the earliest patents
which apparently refer to a steam-engine are of
the years 1627 and 1631 ; 2 that the Marquis of
Worcester's “water-commanding engine” and
his almost prophetic statements were of the year
1663 ; that Sir S. Morland’s proposals were made
in 1683 ; and Thomas Savery’s success in 1698,
— it is hard to deny that we owe the engine, as
regards the second or scientific condition, to a
Trench work.

The Marquis of Worcester's engine was the
first w r e know to have been really constructed.
Its purpose is clearly stated in the “ Exact and
True Definition,” by “ an antient Servant of his
Lordship.”

“ There being, indeed, no place but either
wanteth water, or is overburdened therewith,

1 Mr. Diicks in his new Life of the Marquis of Worcester strangely
overlooks this work of Isaac de Caus.

2 Kymer’s Fcedera, vol. xviii. p. 992 ; or, Calendars of the State
Paper Office, Domestic Series.

OfB ritish Invention.

101

(and) by this engine either defect is remediable.”
Its principle, there is little doubt, was that
enunciated by De Caus, from whom it was in all
probability derived. For, as Mr. Dircks admits , 1
the Marquis “ evidently availed himself of every
suggestion that either reading, accident, experi-
ence, or travel, threw into his way.” With the
construction of Worcester’s Engine we are not
acquainted, but it seems to have been in part
due to his assistant Caspar Kaltoff, a Dutchman
and an “ unparalleled workman both for trust
and skill.”

It is in Thomas Savery’s description of his
engine that we can most clearly discriminate the
conditions of the great invention. The purpose
was clearly to raise water and drain mines, as
indicated by the title of his excellent little pub-
lication, “ The Miner’s Friend,” but most ex-
plicitly stated within. “I do not doubt,” he
says , 2 “ that, in a few years, it will be a means of
making our mining trade, which is no small part
of the wealth of this kingdom, double if not
treble to what it now is.” He continues, 3 —
“ The coals used in this engine are of as little
value as the coals commonly burned on the

1 H. Dircks, Life of Worcester, p. 354.

" Page 6. 3 Pages 35, 36

102

The Coal Question.

mouths of the coal-pits are;” and “the charge
of them is not to he mentioned, when we con-
sider the vast quantity of water raised, by the
inconsiderable value of the coals used, and burned
in so small a furnace.” Here we have the most
distinct statement that the purpose of the engine
was to use the waste and valueless slack coals to
overcome the great obstacle to the progress of our
mines. The position Avhich Savery contemjdated
for his engine was clearly the mouth of a
coal-pit.

As to the principle of the invention, it was that
of He Caus, with the additional principle of the
vacuum, which may have been the discovery of
Savery himself.

It is, however, in the construction of the
machine that Savery ’s highest credit seems to
lie. “I have met,” he says, 1 “with great diffi-
culties and expense to instruct handicraft arti-
ficers to forme my engine, according to my
design.” And whoever examines the picture of
his engine, either in the original work or copies,
will he struck by the very compact and work-
manlike form of the machine, which Avould be a
creditable piece of mechanism even at the present
day. There is no doubt that by this time the use

1 Miner’s Friend. Prefatory Address to the Royal Society.

OfB, 'itish Invention.

103

of cheap and excellent coal at Wolverhampton,
Birmingham, and Sheffield, had enabled our arti-
sans to acquire remarkable skill in the working of
metals ; 1 and it is to this facility of construction,
joined to the principle published by DeCaus, hut
especially to the strong purpose and incitement
offered by the condition of our coal-mines, that I
should attribute the complete invention of the
steam-engine.

Savery’s engine was extremely wasteful of
heat, because the steam came in actual contact
with the cold water to be moved. It was so
uneconomical, that, in spite of the cheapness of
coals, it could not come into use. Denis Papin,
a Drench refugee, and an engineer of the highest
mechanical talents, supplied and published, be-
fore the Itoyal Society, in 1699, the new principle
required to perfect the engine, that of a piston
intervening between the steam and water. But
the Prenchman was deficient in constructive
power ; and it was reserved for X ewe omen to
accomplish the atmospheric engine, which proved
capable of draining our mines and reviving our
industry.

1 See Dr. Plot’s account of the artisans of Wolverhampton, Walsall,
and the Neighbourhood, Natural History of Staffordshire, p. 376.
Also Smiles’ Lives of Boulton and Watt, pi. 163.

104

The Coal Question.

The subsequent steps in the improvement of
the engine consisted chiefly in methods of using
the steam more economically. They will he con-
sidered in the following chapter.

The atmospheric engine, perfected in some
mechanical details by Smeaton, was employed
throughout the century, not only to drain the
coal and Cornish mines, hut, in the absence of
the crank, or the sun and planet wheels of Watt,
to raise water to turn water-wheels where a
natural supply of water was deficient, an em-
ployment anticipated by Bamsey, Worcester,
Morland, and Savery.

The engine, from an early period of its history,
turned the tide of the arts. As Briavoinne re-
marks, 1 it was indispensable that other nations
should follow England in adopting this newly
found power; and, between 1722 and 1733, the
first engine was sent from England to Belgium,
and set to work by the aid of English me-
chanics. 2

Its effect upon the English mines was extra-
ordinary. “ The steam-engine produced a new
era in the mining and commercial interests of

1 Briavoinne, De l’lnclustrie en Belgique, Bruxelles, 1839, p. 201.

2 Toilliez ‘ M^moire sur 1’Introduction des Machines h Vapeur
dans le Hainaut.” Quoted by Briavoinne, p. 226.

Of British Invention. 105

Britain, and, as it were in an instant, put every
coal-field, winch was considered as lost, within
the grasp of its owners. Collieries were opened
in every district, and snch has been the astonish-
ing effect produced by this machine, that great
coal was shipping free on hoard in the Iiiver
Forth, in the year 1785, at 4s. lOd per ton;ythat
is, after a period of seventy years, coals had only
advanced 2 cl. per ton, while the price of labour
and all materials was doubled.” 1

Of hardly less importance than the steam-
engine are the new modes of conveyance, gra-
dually introduced or discovered here, during the
last two hundred and fifty years. Common
roads, worth calling such, only began to he
made in the middle of last century, when the
enterprise of the country was roused by the new
influence of steam and iron. Between 1760 and
1774, no fewer than 452 Acts for makinsr or
repairing highways passed through Parliament ; 2
and it is necessary to read Mr. Smiles’ volume
to form a notion of the previous wretched state
of our communications. Common roads, how-
ever, have little further connexion with our
subject.

1 Bald on the Scotch Coal Trade, p. 24.

2 Smiles’ Lives of the Engineers, vol. i. p. 206.

106

The Coal Question.

Canals might also seem utterly disconnected
from the use of coal. Certainly, both in principle
and construction, they have nothing to do with
it. Holland, Prance, Sweden, and Russia had
created and developed, on a large scale, the art
of making canals long before we had a single
canal. Holland enjoyed a magnificent system
of artificial water communication. France had
connected the Loire and Seine, the Loire and
Sa6ne and the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediter-
ranean ; Peter the Great had constructed a canal
from the Don to the Volga.

But until coal supplied the purpose there was
not spirit enough in this country to undertake
so formidable a work as a canal. In spite of
Yarranton’s demonstration of the advantages of
inland navigation, the first true canal Act was
that passed in 1755 for making the Sankey Brook
Cut, to enable the coal of St. Helen’s to reach
the Mersey. This small work drew the Duke of
Bridgewater’s attention to the profit to be derived
from a more economical mode of conveying coal
to Manchester. In getting an Act passed to cut
the celebrated canal from his mines at Worsley
to Salford, he hound himself not to charge more
freight on coal than 2s. 6<7., the previous cost of
carriage having been 9s. or 10s. The opening of

Of British Invention.

107

the canal at once reduced the price of coal in
Manchester, from 7 <7. per cwt. (120 lbs.) to 3 \d. j 1
and it is impossible to say how much such a re-
duction may not have contributed to the growth
of industry in this great centre. And, while one
branch carried fuel, the other branch of this
grand work was carried from Manchester to the
Mersey, in order that raw materials might he
brought into conjunction with the fuel, and the
finished products conveyed hack. The Duke of
Bridgewater’s view of the innate power of Eng-
land was clearly shown in his saying that “ a
navigation should always have coals at the heels
of it.” 3

Railroads, however, are perhaps our great, and
it would seem, our purely indigenous invention.
The principle involved is little more than that of
a wheel upon a hard road, hut it is surprising
how entirely the development of the principle
has been connected with our coal trade. The
first known use of the rail is due to Beaumont,
in the year 1630. This gentleman went to New-
castle at a period of our history when enterprise
and ingenuity seemed the rule. But his merits
and his reward are summed up in a quaint

1 Smiles’ Lives of the Engineers, vol. i. pp. 344 — 361.

a Ibid. vol. i. p. 401

108

The Coal Question.

passage : — “ One Master Beaumont, a gentleman
of great ingenuity and rare parts, adventured
into the mines of Northumberland with his
30,000Z. and brought with him many rare engines,
not then known in that shire, and waggons with
one horse, to carry down coals from the pits to
the river ; hut within a few years he consumed
all his money, and rode home upon his light
horse.”

The early rails were simple bars of wood, laid
parallel upon wooden sleepers, or embedded in
the ordinary track to diminish friction. They
were gradually introduced into the other coal
districts of Wales, Cumberland, and Scotland —
at Whitehaven as early as 1738. It was soon
found that a slip of iron, nailed upon the wooden
rail, was economical in preventing wear ; and
when the abundance of iron had been increased
by the coal-blast furnace, rails made entirely of
iron were substituted. Such iron rails were first
used by Reynolds at the Coalbrookdale works, the
birthplace of the smelting furnace, to facilitate
the conveyance of coal and ore. In 177G, again,
a cast-iron tramway, or plate-way, was intro-
duced into the underground workings of the
Duke of Norfolk’s colliery, at Sheffield, by John
Curr, whose writings prove his perception of the

109

Of British In vention.

importance of tlie improvement. 1 It was in
1789 that William Jessop made a railway at
Loughborough, with cast-iron edge rails, and a
flange transferred to the waggon wheel. Finally,
in 1820, nearly two hundred years after the em-
ployment of wooden rails, wrought-iron rails,
invented by Mr. Birkenshaw, were rolled at the
Bedlington iron-works, on the river Blytli, near
Newcastle. 2

But the railway was incomplete without steam
power. Every one knows the history of the loco-
motive — that it was brought into successful use
by George Stephenson, the colliery engineman,
for the purpose of leading coals from the pit to
the shipping place ; that, after long exertions, it
was proved more economical than horse-power,
and that when the growing goods traffic between
the coal-driven factories of Manchester and the
port at Liverpool had altogether exceeded the
powers of the canal, a railway was undertaken
which led to our present system.

Throughout the history, then, of this great
and indigenous invention, we constantly find the
purpose and construction alike dependent on the
working of coal. The conveyance of great weights

1 Coal Viewer's and Engine Builder’s Practical Companion, 1797.

2 Report, of British Association, 1863, p. 760.

no

The Coal Question.

of coal was the purpose ; the energy that is in
coal, and the cheap iron it yields, supplied the
constructive means of accomplishing that pur-
pose. Not unnaturally, then, was Newcastle the
cradle of the railway system.

Although, in later years, railways have been
extended through purely agricultural countries,
such as Russia or some of the States of North
America, yet we may observe, in many places,
and especially in England, that the rapid ex-
tension of railways is mainly due to the traffic
and wealth occasioned by the use of coal in
manufactures. It was long ago observed by a
writer on the coal trade, that “ the numerous
canals, and conveyances from the distant parts
of the kingdom, and to local stations, owe their
existence to the wealth acquired by the use of
coal .” 1 Now, if a series of railway-maps of
Great Britain, for the last twenty or thirty
years, he closely examined, it will he apparent,
not only that the railway system was developed
on the coal-fields, but that it yet converges upon
them, just as the arteries and veins of the animal
body converge upon the heart and lungs. The
densely crowded lines of railway around New-
castle, Manchester, and Wolverhampton, form

1 C. Beaumont, Treatise on the final Trade, 1789, p. 2.

Of British Invention.

Ill

the heart of the railway system. There are,
indeed, several great aortal lines, which connect
the coal-fields with each other or with the metro-
polis, the head of the body ; or the metropolis
with the Continent ; but, in every other direction,
it will be observed that the railway system be-
comes sluggish in proportion to its distance from
a coal-field, the traffic subdividing and dwindling
away like the arterial streams of the animal
body. The least successful railways are the
Great Western, the Great Eastern, and other
lines of railway which run into the most purely
agricultural parts of the kingdom. Wise and
far-seeing, then, were the favourite notions of
George Stephenson : — “ The strength of Britain,”
he used to say, “ lies in her iron and coal-beds ;
and the locomotive is destined, above all other
agencies, to bring it forth. The Lord Chancellor
now sits upon a bag of wool, but wool has long
ceased to be emblematical of the staple com-
modity of England. He ought to sit upon a bag
of coals.” 1

As regards bridges, the command of iron has
given us advantages of construction never before
enjoyed. Italian and Erench engineers were alto-
gether our superiors in bridge-building until near

1 Smiles' Engineers, yol. iii. p. 357.

112

The Coal Question.

the end of last century; but they failed, as in
an instance at Lyons, in 1755, in iron bridges,
“ chiefly because of the inability of the early
founders to cast large masses of iron, and also
because the metal was then more expensive than
either stone or timber,” 1 The first iron bridge
was erected at Coalbrookdale, by Messrs. Reynolds
and Darby, in 1777 ; and we know what has
since been accomplished, in the construction of
iron bridges, wdien the extension of roads and
railways presented an adequate purpose.

Iron presents the necessary material condition
of several things, -which -would not be supposed
to he dependent on it. The supply of water
depends on the use of iron pipes. When Sir II.
Middleton had brought the New River to London,
he found the distribution of the water a matter
of the greatest difficulty — the old wooden pipes
wasting one-fourth of the supply, and being
subject to rapid decay. 2 Coal-gas, again, itself
an important product of coal, could not he used
in its present abundance and economy, without
the use of iron distributing-pipes. 3

A more important use of iron is in the develop-
ment of mechanical engineering in general. Our

1 Smiles’ Engineers, vol. ii. p. 355. 2 Ibid. vol. i. p. 12G.

3 Hearn’s Plutology, 18G4, p. 193,

Of IS ritish Invention.

113

inventions for sp innin g and weaving by ma-
chinery are not, in their origin, dependent on
coal. The early mills were turned by water, and
involved but little iron work. The development
and perfection of our factory system, however*
could never have been carried far without abun-
dance of iron. “The inventions of Arkwright,
Crompton, and others,” says Mr. Fairbairn, 1
“ could not have been executed but for iron ; and
it is fortunate for the industrial resources of the
country, that the manufacture of iron has kept
pace with our industrial progress. I am not
able to state the amount of consumption of iron
in machine-making alone, but taking that for
cotton machinery in only one of our largest
firms, that of Messrs. Platt and Co. of Oldham,
I should average it at 400 or 500 tons per Aveek ;
and in that of my late brother, Sir Peter Pair-
bairn, of Leeds, in flax and other machines, at
250 to 300 tons per week.”

In some of the old water-mills, yet working in
remote country places, we may see ponderous
wooden shafts, spindles, and wheels, which seem
hardly adapted now-a-days to receive motion,
much less to communicate it. Brindley was

1 Two Lectures on Iron and its Applications. Newcastle, 1864,
V> . 15.

114

The Coal Question.

brought up as a millwright, in the use of wood,
and long clung to it — even making wooden-
hooped cylinders for engines, which were natu-
rally apt to break down. But having at last
discarded brick, stone, and wood, he constructed
in 1763 at Coalbrookdale, an engine that was
a “ complete and noble piece of iron-work.” 1
Smeaton carried forward the substitution of iron
for wood ; but it was Bennie who established its
general use, in his celebrated Albion Mills, the
whole of his wheels and shafts being made of
cast-iron. We find, then, in cast-iron, a material
condition which allowed a general advance in the
construction of our machines.

A second substitution, however, has taken
place, of wrought-iron for cast-iron. It is Mr.
Fairbairn who chiefly introduced the use of light
wrought-iron shafting for heavy, slow cast-iron
work, and thus effected a general economy and
advance in the employment of machine power,
almost comparable with that of Brindley, Smea-
ton, and Bennie. 2

It only remains to be added, that the use of
steel, could Mr. Bessemer produce it sufficiently
cheap, would occasion a third, and as far as we

1 Smiles’ Engineers, vol. i. pp. 332, 333.

3 Fairbairn on Mills and Mill-work.

Of British Invention.

115

can see, a final substitution of steel for nearly
every other material; so that our machines
would be carried to an apparent maximum of
efficiency, economy, and elegance, as regards the
material of our works.

The shaping and moulding of iron, on the
large scale, demanded a wholly new set of
arrangements. A purpose having arisen for new
inventions, the ancient principles of the lathe,
the hammer, and the plane were developed by
workmen such as Bramah, Maudslay, Clements,
Roberts, Whitworth, Nasmyth, and Wilson.
Thus there gradually grew up a system of
machine-tool labour, the substitution of iron
hands for human hands, without which the
execution of engines and machines, in their
present perfection and size, would be impossible.

“When I first entered this city,” said Mr.
Eairbairn, in his address to the British Asso-
ciation at Manchester, in 1861, “the whole of
the machinery was executed by hand. There
were neither planing, slotting, nor shaping ma-
chines ; and, with the exception of very imper-
fect lathes, and a few drills, the preparatory
operations of construction were effected entirely
by the hands of the workmen. Now every-
thing is done by machine tools with a degree of

X 2

116 The Goal Question.

accuracy which the unaided hand could never
accomplish.”

Any one who reflects upon what has been
brought to pass by the use of abundant iron will
agree with the remark of Locke, that “ he who
first made known the uses of iron may he truly
styled the Lather of Arts, and the Author of
Plenty.” Such has been our work in recent
times.

It would be absurd to try to follow out in
detail the mechanical contrivances of the present
age. Reflection will show that they are mainly
hut the completions of a system of machine
labour, in which steam is the motive power, and
iron the fulcrum and the lever. The principles
of science involved are in no way our own pro-
perty, being quite as successfully studied on the
Continent as here. But from the cheapness of
coal and iron we have a peculiar advantage in
developing their use ; and therefore all the details
of machine construction are pushed forward in
one great system, of which no part can advance
far without the rest.

The Britannia Bridge, our truest national
monument, “ was the result of a vast combina-
tion of skill and industry. But for the perfection
of our tools, and the ability of our mechanics to

Of British Invention.

117

use them to the greatest advantage ; but for the
matured powers of the steam-engine ; hut for the
improvements in the iron manufacture, which
enabled blooms to be puddled of sizes before
deemed impracticable, and plates and bars of
immense size to be rolled and forged; hut for
these, the Britannia Bridge would have been
designed in vain. Thus it was not the product
of the genius of the railway engineer alone,
but of the collective mechanical genius of the
English nation ;” 1 and Mr. Bobert Stephenson
himself said, “ The locomotive is not the inven-
tion of one man, hut of a nation of mechanical
engineers.” 2

There is no better example of what our united
inventions can accomplish than the iron or steel
screw steam-vessel, the product of coal from
truck to keel, — hull, engines, masts, rigging,
anchors.

Of this product of our industry, Mr. Porter
remarked, that “ it was one in which our mineral
riches and our great mechanical skill will secure
to us a virtual monopoly.” And any one who con-
siders the present progress of iron ship-building
in this country must see that half a century
hence our chief ocean conveyances will he wholly

1 Smiles’ Engineers, vol. iii. p. 440. 2 Ibid. p. S.

118

The Coal Question.

by steam. Sailing vessels will not be entirely
discarded, but will occupy a subordinate rank,
similar to that of canal boats and coasting vessels.
Our world-wide communications will be improved
in a degree now perhaps nntbongbt of; but we
cannot forget that a steam-vessel is endowed
with a constant and voracious appetite for, coal,
that must fearfully accelerate the drain upon
our mines.

There yet remains a whole class of inventions,
of a chemical rather than a mechanical nature,
where a substance has to be altered in its inti-
mate constitution, instead of its outward form.
In these inventions iron is in a very minor degree
useful ; and accordingly, it can hardly be asserted
that in the chemical and experimental sciences
and arts we are more than barely equal to the
Trench or Germans. Photography, for instance,
presents an instance of equal progress in several
different nations.

Many remarkable instances have occurred of
the commercial replacement of one chemical sub-
stance by another. The progress of commerce
often depends on such replacements, as when the
palm and cocoa oils are used instead of tallow
and linseed oils ; silk instead of wool, cotton
instead of flax, Spanish grass instead of rags,

OfB ritish Invention.

119

wheat instead of rye or buckwheat, turnips
instead of hay.

So far as such substances are beyond the con-
structive arts, and of purely organic origin,' they
are beyond our present subject. But many of
the more important substitutions are due to coal.
Most chemical processes depend on the use of
heat ; and our cheap fuel has enabled us to raise
many great branches of chemical manufacture.
Our Cheshire salt mines, with the aid of cheap
coal, give us a supremacy in the salt trade, re-
versing the import trade which used to be carried
on, when salt was made by the natural evapora-
tion of sea-water on the coasts of Prance, Spain,
and the Mediterranean. Cheap salt, again, with
abundance of fuel, was made to yield carbonate
of soda, which replaced, with a great reduction
of price, the soda formerly got from kelp or
barilla, the ashes of sea-weed. This cheap supply
of alkali is all-important in our soap and glass
trades, and in a great variety of minor chemical
manufactures. Potash, on the contrary, still
continues to be obtained from the ashes of wood,
and is accordingly imported at a high price from
Canada or Russia. If ever it be extracted from
its natural source in felspar, it must be done by
an abundant use of fuel.

120

The Coal Question.

When the Government of the Two Sicilies
placed an exorbitant tax on sulphur, Italy having
as it was thought a monopoly of native sulphur,
our manufacturers soon had resort to the distil-
lation of iron pyrites, or sulphide of iron; and
it has been remarked by Liebig that sulphur
could have been extracted, if necessary, from
gypsum, or sulphate of lime. 1 Cheap fuel would
still be the all-important condition.

Perhaps the most wonderful mode of employ-
ing coal is in the ice-machine, two kinds of
which, of Trench and English invention respec-
tively, were at work in the Exhibition of 1862.
By such machines, ive may make fire, in the
hottest climate, produce the cold of the Polar
Regions !

With fuel and fire, then, almost anything is
easy. By its aid in the smelting furnace or the
engine we have effected, for a century past, those
successive substitutions of a better for a worse,
a cheaper for a dearer, a new for an old process,
which advance our material civilization. But
when this fuel, our material energy, fails us,
whence will come the power to do equal or
greater things in the future? A man cannot
expect that because he has done much when in

J Liebig’s Letters on Chemistry, pp. 152, 153.

Of British Invention.

121

stout health and bodily vigour, he will do still
more when his strength has departed. Yet such
is the position of our national body, unless either
the source of our strength be carefully spared,
or something can be found better than coal to
replace it, and carry on the substitution of the
better for the worse. Whether the consumption
of coal can be kept down in our free system of
industry, or whether in the process of discovery
we can expect to find some substitute for coal,
must next be considered. The dispassionate con-
clusion will be far from satisfactory.

122

The Coal Question.

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE ECONOMY OE FUEL.

It is very commonly urged, that the failing
supply of coal will he met by new modes of using
it efficiently and economically. The amount of
useful work got out of coal may he made to
increase manifold, while the amount of coal con-
sumed is stationary or diminishing. We have
thus, it is supposed, the means of completely
neutralizing the evils of scarce and costly fuel. 1
It is shown, in fact, by the mechanical theory of
heat, that the work done by coal, in a good
engine of the present day, does not exceed about
one-sixth part of what the coal is capable of
doing. In furnaces, too, the portion of heat
actually used is a small and often infinitesimal
fraction of the heat wasted ; and in the domestic
use of coal, in open grates, at least four-fifths of
the heat escapes up the chimney unheeded.

1 See for instance the remarks of Waterston in his Cyclopredia of
Commerce, 1846, pp. 163, 164.

123

Of the Economy, of Fuel.

I speak not here of the domestic consumption
of coal. This is undoubtedly capable of being
cut down without other harm than curtailing our
home comforts, and somewhat altering our con-
firmed national habits. The coal thus saved
would be, for the most part, laid up for the use
of posterity. But even if our population could
be induced to abstain from the enjoyment of a
good fire, the saving effected would not extend
over more than about one-third of the total
consumption of coal ; the domestic consumption
being, on an average, about one ton per annum,
per head of the population. Of the other two-
thirds, nearly one-third is used in our iron
manufactures ; and the remainder in our fac-
tories, furnaces, and machine shops generally.

But the economy of coal in manufactures is a
different matter. It is wholly a confusion of ideas
to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equi-
valent to a diminished consumption. The very
contrary is the truth.

As a rule, new modes of economy will lead to
an increase of consumption according to a prin-
ciple recognised in many parallel instances. The
economy of labour effected by the introduction
of new machinery throws labourers out of em-
ployment for the moment. But such is the

124

The Goal Question.

increased demand for the cheapened products,
that eventually the sphere of employment is
greatly widened. Often the very labourers whose
labour is saved find their more efficient labour
more demanded than before. Seamstresses, for
instance, have perhaps in no case been injured,
but have often gained wages before unthought
of, by the use of the sewing-machine, for which
we are so much indebted to American inventors.

So it is a familiar rule of finance that the
reduction of taxes and tolls leads to increased
gross and sometimes even nett revenues ; and it
is a maxim of trade, that a low rate of profits,
with the multiplied business it begets, is more
profitable than a small business at a high rate of
profit.

Now the same principles apply, with even
greater force and distinctness, to the use of such
a general agent as coal. It is the very economy
of its use which leads to its extensive consump-
tion. It has been so in the past, and it will be
so in the future. Nor is it difficult to see how
this paradox arises.

The number of tons of coal used in any branch
of industry is the product of the, number of
separate works, and the average number of tons
consumed in each. Now, if the quantity of

Of the Economy of Fuel.

125

coal used in a blast-furnace, for instance, be
diminished in comparison with the yield, the
profits of the trade will increase, new capital will
be attracted, the price of pig-iron will fall, but
the demand for it increase ; and eventually the
greater number of furnaces will more than make
up for the diminished consumption of each.
And if such is not always the result within a
single branch, it must be remembered that the
progress of any branch of manufacture excites a
new activity in most other branches, and leads
indirectly, if not directly, to increased inroads
upon our seams of coal.

It needs but little reflection to see that the
whole of our present vast industrial system, and
its consequent consumption of coal, has chiefly
arisen from successive measures of economy.

Civilization, says Baron Liebig, is the economy
of power, and our power is coal. It is the very
economy of the use of coal that makes our
industry what it is ; and the more we render
it efficient and economical, the more will our
industry thrive, and our works of civilization
grow.

The engine is the motive power of this country,
and its history is a history of successive steps of
economy. Savory recommended liis engine for

126

The Coal Question.

its cheap drawing of water and small charge of
coals. But as he allowed the steam to act
straight upon the water, without the interven-
tion of a piston, the loss of heat was tremendous.
Practically, the cost of working kept it from
coming into use ; it consumed no coal, because its
rate of consumption ions too high.' Newcomen
made the first step towards the future use of the
engine, by interposing a piston, rod, beam, and
pump, between the steam and water. It was
asserted that mines formerly drowned out and
abandoned might sometimes, when coal was very
cheap, he profitably drained by his rude atmo-
spheric engine. But when Brindley went to
Wolverhampton, to inspect one of these engines,
he formed the opinion “ that, unless the con-
sumption of coal could be reduced, the extended
use of this steam-engine was not practicable, by
reason of its dearness, as compared with the
power of horses, wind, or air.” 2

Smeaton, the most philosophical of engineers,
after a careful study of the atmospheric engine,
succeeded in nearly doubling its efficiency. The
engine had long been hanging on the verge of
commercial possibility ; he brought it into suc-

1 Farcy, Treatise on the Steam-Engine, p. 117.

2 Smiles’ Engineers, vol. i. pp. 32 9, 330.

127

Of the Economy of Fuel.

cessful use, and made it both possible and pro-
fitable. But in this branch of his art he willingly
gave place to that even greater man, who, after
long continued scientific and practical labours,
made the steam-engine the agent of civilization,
I need hardly say that Watt’s two chief inven-
tions of the condenser and the expansive mode of
working are simply two modes of economising
heat. The double cylinder of Woolf, the method
of surface-condensing, of super-heating, &c. are
other inventions, directed to economy of coal.
To save the loss of heat in the boiler, and the loss
of power by friction, are two other points of
economy, to which numberless inventions are
directed. And with the exception of contri-
vances, such as the crank, the governor, and the
minor mechanism of an engine, necessary for
regulating, transmitting, or modifying its power,
it maybe said that the -whole history of the steam-
engine is one of economy .

“The economy of fuel is the secret of the
economy of the steam-engine ; it is the fountain
of its power, and the adopted measure of its
effects. Whatever, therefore, conduces to in-
crease the efficiency of coal, and to diminish the
cost of its use, directly tends to augment the

128

The Coal Question.

value of the steam-engine, and to enlarge the
field of its operations.” 1

The result of these efforts at economy is clearly
exhibited in a table of the duty done by engines
at different periods. This work or duty is ex-
pressed by the number of pounds of water raised
one foot high by the expenditure of a bushel
(8-1 lbs.) of coaL 2

Duty in lUs.

1769. Average of old atmospheric engines 5,590,000

1772. Smeaton’s atmospheric engine 9,450,000

1776. Watt’s improved engine 21,600,000

1779 — 1788. Watt’s engine working expansively . . . 26,600,000

1820. Engine improved by Cornish engineers .... 28,000,000

1830. Average duty of Cornish engines 43,350,000

1859. Average duty of Cornish engines (per 112 lbs. T) . 54,000,000

1859. Extreme duty of best engine (per 112 lbs. '!) . . 80,000,000

In less than one hundred years, then, the
efficiency of the engine has been increased at
least ten-fold ; and it need hardly be said that it
is the cheapness of the power it affords that
allows us to draw rivers from our mines, to drive
our coal-pits in spite of floods and quicksands, to

1 C. W. Williams, The Combustion of Coal, 1841, p. 9.

2 Taylor’s Records of Mining, p. 152, &c. Much confusion lias been
introduced into these accounts by the change of measure from bushels
to cwts. In March 1866 the average duty of 27 Cornish engines was
only 51-7 millions per 112 lbs. and the highest duty 64’6 millions.
The performance of an engine easily falls back.

Of the Economy of Fuel.

129

drain our towns and lowlands, and to supply
with water our highest places ; and, finally, to
put in motion the great system of our machine
labour, which may be said, as far as any com-
parison is possible, to enable us to do as much
as all the other inhabitants of the world with
their unaided labours.

Future improvements of the engine can only
have the same result, of extending the use of such
a powerful agent. It is usual with a certain
class of writers to depreciate science in regard to
the steam-engine, and to treat this as a pure
creation of practical sagacity. But just as the
origin of the engine may be traced to a scientific
work, so it is now theory and experiment in their
highest and latest developments, which give us a
sure notion how great will be the future improve-
ment of the engine, and through what means it
is to be aimed at.

“ A well constructed and properly working
ordinary double-acting steam-engine,” of the
present time, consumes about BOO lbs. of bitu-
minous coal per horse-power per hour. “ A
double-acting steam-engine, improved to the
utmost probable extent, would use 2'501bs. of
the same coal ; ” while a theoretically perfect
engiue, working between such limits of tempera-

K

130

The Coal Question.

tare as are usual in steam-engines, “ would
require only l - 861bs.’ M

But theory further points out, what practice
has partially confirmed, that the work done by
an engine for a certain expenditure of fuel is
proportional to the difference of the temperatures
at which steam enters and leaves the engine.
From this principle arises the economy of using
high-pressure and super-heated steam ; for we
have, as it were, all the old force of the low-
pressure and less-heated steam, with a great
addition from the initial high pressure and the
increased store of useful heat in the steam. The
economy already effected in this manner is
wonderful. The very engines which had burned
12 or 14 lbs. of coal per hour, when worked with
steam at 4, 6, or 8 lbs. pressure, have been found
to burn only 3} or 4 lbs. of coal when supplied
with stronger boilers, and worked at steam-
pressures from 30 to 70 lbs. per square inch. 1 2

Such simple changes as the shortening of the
steam supply, the addition of a second cylinder,
the felting of the boiler and steam-vessels, the
enlarging of the boiler, the raising of the pres-

1 W. J. M. Rankine on the Air-Engine. Report of the British
Association, 1854, p. 159.

2 James Nasmyth, in Tooke’s History of Prices, vol. vi. p. 533.

Of the Economy of Fuel.

131

sure, or the acceleration of the speed of travelling
of an engine, are the simple means by which the
self-same engine has often been made to give a
manifold result.

It is true that, as w r e go on improving, the
margin of improvement becomes narrower, and
its attainment more difficult and costly. The
improvement of the boiler mainly depends upon
the amount of capital expenditure against current
expenditure. Eor the efficiency of a boiler grow r s
with the surface of water w r e can expose to absorb
the heat of the fire ; hut the more v r e extend
this surface, the less additional economy will an
equal extension effect.

So the accomplishment of a new r steam-engine,
v r ith much increased limits of temperature and
economy, will probably require a wholly new set
of mechanical expedients, because heated steam
destroys the lubricating oil w r hich is an essential
part of all machinery, and is even said to attack
the iron itself. Many of the difficulties inherent
in the steam-engine are, however, absent in the
air-engine, which presents a wide prospect of
economy, as seen in the following numbers : —

Actual consumption of Consumption of
Coal per horse-pow er, theoretically
per hour. perfect engine.

Sterling’s air-engine 2'201b. 0731b.

Ericsson’s engine of 1S52 . . . 2'SO 0'S2

K 2

132

The Coal Question.

“ Sterling’s engine,” it is said, “ as finally im-
proved, was compact in its dimensions, easily
worked, not liable to get out of order, and con-
sumed less oil, and required fewer repairs, than
any steam-engine ; still, the advantages sliown
by that engine over steam-engines were not so
great as to induce practical men to overcome
their natural repugnance to exchange a long-
tried method for a new one.” 1

Still, the fact is established, that an engine
has worked at about one-half the expenditure of
an ordinary good engine of the present day . 2 The
ultimate improvement of the air-engine will
probably reduce the consumption to less than
one-third of the present consumption. The
gradual progress of mechanical workmanship,
and long continued efforts incited by the extra-
ordinary profits of success, can alone lead to such
an advance. The inventor who can bring a new
and economical air-engine into use will reap a
fortune to be counted by millions, and will gain
the rank of a second Watt.

But such an improvement of the engine, when
effected, will only accelerate anew the consump-

1 W. J. M. Eankine, British Association, 1854, p. 159.

2 A new air-engine is said to be successfully working, but it burns
nearly 4 lbs. of coal per horse-power per hour. Mining Journal —
Supplement, 12th May, 1866.

133

Of the Economy of Fuel.

tion of coal. Every branch of manufacture will
receive a fresh impulse — hand labour will be still
further replaced by mechanical labour, and
greatly extended works will be undertaken by
aid of the cheap air-power, which were not com-
mercially possible by the use of the costly steam-
power. At least three great employments of the
steam-engine are now in their germ, or scarcely
beyond it, which would grow beyond conception
by a great improvement of the engine. The
pumping of liquid sewage out of our great
towns, and its distribution over the country, is
one mode which would return a clear profit of
many millions a year. The steam-plough is a
second instance. Its efficiency is beyond ques-
tion, and the soil is said to be quickened by its
irresistible tillage, as a fire is quickened by the
poker. But it yet hangs upon the verge of com-
mercial possibility, as did Stephenson’s locomo-
tive-engine, when he had got it to draw, but
scarcely cheaper than horses. Taking the first
and current costs into account, it is yet doubtful
whether the stcam-plougli works as cheaply as
the old horsc-plougli; but James Watt, to the
surprise of his contemporaries, asserted that
steam-ploughing was possible ; 1 and Mr. Eair-

1 f * ‘eittfcmu Muijii-.il>,-, IS 10, pill 2. p. {>32.

131

The Coal Question.

bairn, at the British Association in 1861, con-
fessed his belief that many of those present
Avould live to see the steam-plough in operation
over the length and breadth of the land. Now,
an improvement in the engine, reducing the cost
of fuel, will turn the balance in favour of coal-
power, and its common use in agriculture will
be a certainty.

But it is in steam navigation that the improve-
ment of the engine will have most marked effects.
Any extensive saving of fuel, saving its stowage-
room as well as its cost, will still more completely
turn the balance in favour of steam, and sailing-
vessels will soon sink into a subordinate rank.

What is true of economy in the engine is true
of several other important, and many less im-
portant instances of economy. The extraordinary
increase of the iron trade is a trite example.
“ This rapid and great increase, shown in the
last few years, has been, in some part, caused by
the economy introduced through the use of the
hot blast in smelting, a process which has mate-
rially lowered the cost of iron, and, therefore,
has led to its employment for many purposes in
which its use was previously unknown.” 1 In
fact, as shown in a subsequent chapter, 2 the

1 Porter’s Progress, 1851, p. 575. 2 Chap. xv.

Of the Economy of Fuel. 135

reduction of the consumption of coal, per ton of
iron, to less than one-third of its former amount,
has been followed, in Scotland T by a ten-fold
total consumption, not to speak of the indirect
effect of cheap iron in accelerating other coal-
consnming branches of industry.

Siemens’ regenerative furnace is a very good
example of economy, now coming into use. It
is somewhat on the principle of the hot blast.
The current is passed alternately in opposite
directions through two brick chambers, between
which lies the furnace. Much of the waste heat,
on its way to the chimney, is absorbed by the
bricks, and again given out, when the current is
reversed, to the cool air on its way to the furnace.
Much less fuel is required, in such a furnace, to
maintain a given temperature, than if cold air
were allowed to flow directly into the fire. The
general application of such regenerative chambers
to furnaces would require the investment of a
large amount of capital ; and the question in
such improvements, as in the case of the boiler,
lies between a large initial investment and large
current expenses.

The utilization of spare heat from a puddling
or reheating furnace, by passing it through a
steam-boiler ; the saving of the waste gases of a

136 The Coal Question.

blast-furnace, to beat the blast, or work the
engines'; the employment of spare heat in salt
pans ; the use of small gas flames, or gas fur-
naces, where large coal fires were before used :
such are a few of the very many modes in which
coal may be greatly saved. In fact, there is
hardly a single use of fuel in which a little care,
ingenuity, or expenditure of capital may not
make a considerable saving.

But no one must suppose that coal thus saved
is spared — it is only saved from one use to be
employed in others, and the profits gained soon
lead to extended employment in many new forms.
The several branches of industry are closely in-
terdependent, and the progress of any one leads
to the progress of nearly all.

And if economy in the past has been the main
source of our progress and growing consumption
of coal, the same effect will follow from the same
cause in the future. Economy multiplies the
value and efficiency of our chief material ; it in-
definitely increases our wealth and means of sub-
sistence, and leads to an extension of our popu-
lation, works, and commerce, which is gratifying
in the present, but must lead to an earlier end.
Economical inventions are what I should look
forward to as likeiv to continue our rate of

137

Of the Economy of Fuel.

increasing consumption. Could we keep them to
ourselves, indeed, they would enable us, for a
time, to neutralize the evils of dearness when coal
begins to get scarce, to keep up our accustomed
efficiency, and push down our coal-shafts as
before. But the end would only thus he has-
tened — the exhaustion of our seams more rapidly
carried out.

Let us remember that we are depen dent on the
comparative cheapness of fuel and motive power..
Now comparative cheapness of fuel cannot he
procured or retained by inventions and modes of
economy which are as open to our commercial
competitors as to ourselves, which have in many
cases been introduced by them, and are more
readily adopted by versatile foreigners than by
English manufacturers bound by custom and
routine. Even our superior capital will not avail
us against dear fuel, because nothing more readily
flows abroad in search of profitable employment
than capital. And if we are to uphold a world-
wide freedom of intercourse, let us not deceive
ourselves as to its natural results upon the
material basis of our prosperity.

138

The Coal Question.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF SUPPOSED SUBSTITUTES FOB COAL.

A notion is very prevalent that in the con-
tinuous progress of science some substitute for
coal will be found — some source of motive power
as much surpassing steam as steam surpasses
animal labour.

The popular scientific writer Dr. Lardner, in
the following passage of his Treatise on the
Steam Engine, contributed to spread such no-
tions — in him, as a scientific man, inexcusable . 1
“ The enormous consumption of coals, produced
by the application of the steam-engine, in the
arts and manufactures, as well as railways and
navigation, has, of late years, excited the fears of
many as to the possibility of the exhaustion of
our coal-mines. Such apprehensions are, how-
ever, groundless. If the present consumption of
coal be estimated at sixteen millions of tons
annually, it is demonstrable that the coal-fields

1 Larclner, (In the Steam Engine, 7th ed. 18-in, p. 8.

139

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal.

of this country would not be exhausted for many
centuries.

“ But, in speculations like these, the probable,
if not certain, progress of improvement and dis-
covery ought not to be overlooked ; and we may
safely pronounce that, long before such a period
of time shall have rolled away, other and more
powerful mechanical agents will supersede the
use of coal. Philosophy already directs her
finger at sources of inexhaustible power in the
phenomena of electricity and magnetism. The
alternate decomposition and recomposition of
water, by magnetism and electricity, has too
close an analogy to the alternate processes of
vaporization and condensation not to occur at
once to every mind ; the development of the
gases from solid matter, by the operation of the
chemical affinities, and their subsequent conden-
sation into the liquid form, has already been
essayed as a source of power. In a word, the
general state of physical science at the present
moment ; the vigour, activity, and sagacity with
which researches in it are prosecuted in every
civilized country ; the increasing consideration
in which scientific men are held, and the personal
honours and rewards which begin to be conferred
upon them : all justify the expectation that we

140

The Coal Question.

are on the eve of mechanical discoveries still
greater than any which have yet appeared ; and
that the steam-engine itself, with the gigantic
powers conferred upon it by the immortal Watt,
will dwindle into insignificance, in comparison
with the energies of nature which are still to be
revealed ; and that the day will come when that
machine, which is now extending the blessings
of civilization to the most remote skirts of the
globe, will cease to have existence, except in the
page of history.”

Such high-sounding phrases would mislead no
scientific man at the present day ; hut there is a
large class of persons whose vague notions of the
powers of nature lay them open to the adoption of
paradoxical suggestions. The fallacious notions
afloat on the subject of electricity especially are
unconquerable. Electricity, in short, is to the
present age what the perpetual motion was to an
age not far removed. People are so astonished
at the subtle manifestations of electric power,
that they think the more miraculous effects they
anticipate from it the more profound the appre-
ciation of its nature they show. But then they
generally take that one step too much which the
contrivers of the perpetual motion took— they
treat electricity not only a.s a marvellous modi'

Of Supposed Su bstitutes for Coal. 141

of distributing power, they treat it as a source of
self-creating power.

The great advances which have been achieved
in the mechanical theory of nature, during the
last twenty or thirty years, have greatly cleared
up our notions of force. It has been rendered
apparent that the universe, from a material point
of view, is one great manifestation of a constant
whole of force. The motion of falling bodies, the
motions of magnetic or electric attractions, the
unseen agitation of heat, the vibration of light,
the molecular changes of chemical action, and
even the mysterious life-motions of plants and
animals, all are but the several modes of greater
or lesser motion, and their cause one general
living force.

These views lead us at once to look upon all
machines and processes of manufacture as but
the more or less efficient modes of transmuting
and using force. If we have force in any one of
its forms, as heat, light, chemical change, or
mechanical motion, we can turn it, or mav fairly
hope to turn it, into any other of its forms. But
to think of getting force except from some natural
source, is as absurd as to think of making iron
or gold out of vacant space.

AVe must look abroad then to compare the

112 The Coal Question.

known sources of force. Some distinct sources
are of inconsiderable importance, such as the fall
of meteoric stones, the fall of rocks, or the heat
derivable from sulphur, and other native com-
bustible substances. The internal heat of the
earth, again, presents an immense store of force,
but being powerfully manifested only in the hot-
spring or the volcano, it is not available to us.

The tides arising from the attractions of the
sun, earth, and moon, present another source of
power, which is, and often has been, used in one
way or another, and shall be considered.

The remaining natural sources of force are the
complicated light, heat, chemical and magnetic
influences of the sun’s rays. The light, or che-
mical action, is the origin of organic fuel, in all
its forms of wood, peat, bitumen, coal, &c.; while
the heat occasions the motions of the winds and
falling waters. The electricity of the air and the
thunder-storm, and the electric currents of the
earth, are probably secondary effects of the other
influences. Among these several manifestations
of force, our choice must, in all reasonable pro-
bability, be made.

Now it will be easily seen that nature is to us
almost unbounded, but that economy consists in
discovering and picking out those almost infi-

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 143

nitesimal portions which best serve our purpose.
We disregard the abundant vegetation, and live
upon the small grain of corn ; we burn down the
largest tree, that we may use its ashes ; or we
wash away ten thousand parts of rock, and sand,
and gravel, that we may extract the particle of
gold. Millions, too, live, and work, and die, in
the accustomed grooves for the one Lee, or Savery,
or Crompton, or Watt, who uses his minute per-
sonal contribution of labour to the best effect.

So material nature presents to us the aspect of
one continuous waste of force and matter beyond
our control. The power we employ in the greatest
engine is but an infinitesimal portion withdrawn
from the immeasurable expense of natural forces. 1
But civilization, as Liebig said, is the economy of
power, and consists in withdrawing and using
our small fraction of force in a happy mode and
moment.

The rude forces of nature are too great for us,
as well as too slight. It is often all we can do to
escape injury from them, instead of making them
obey us. And while the sun annually showers
down upon us about a thousand times as much

1 See “Economy of Manufactures,” § 17, d passim. In this ex-
quisite work Mr. Babbage anticipates the modern doctrines of tho
relations of the natural forces.

The Coal Question.

1U

heat-power as is contained in all the coal we
raise annually ; yet that thousandth part, being
under perfect control, is a sufficient basis of all
our economy and progress.

The first great requisite of motive power is,
that it shall be wholly at our command, to be
exerted when and where and in what degree we
desire. The wind, for instance, as a direct motive
power, is wholly inapplicable to a system of
machine labour, for during a calm season the
whole business of the country would be thrown
out of gear. Before the era of steam-engines,
windmills were tried for draining mines; “but
though they were powerful machines, they were
very irregular, so that in a long tract of calm
weather the mines were drowned, and all the
workmen thrown idle. From this cause, the
contingent expenses of these machines were very
great ; besides, they were only applicable in open
and elevated situations.”

No possible concentration of windmills, again,
would supply the force required in large factories
or iron works. An ordinary windmill has the
power of about thirty-four men , 1 or at most,
seven horses. Many ordinary factories would
therefore require ten windmills to drive them ;

1 Life of Telford. Telford’s Memorandum Book, p. 07 1 .

145

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal.

and tlie great Dowlais Ironworks, employing a
total engine power of 7,308 horses, 1 would require
no less than 1,000 large windmills !

In navigation the power of the wind is more
applicable, as it is seldom wanting in the open
sea, and in long voyages the chances are that the
favourable will compensate the unfavourable
winds. But in shorter voyages the uncertainty
and delay of sailing vessels used to be intoler-
able. It is not more than forty years since
passengers for Ireland or for the Continent had
sometimes to wait for weeks until a contrary
wind had blown itself out. Such uncertain
delays dislocate business, and prevent it from
proceeding in the rapid and machine-like manner
which is necessary for economy. Hence the
gradual substitution of steam for sailing vessels.
In the steam boiler, indeed, we have the veritable
bag of iEolus ; and thus, though steam is a most
costly power, it is certain, and our sea captains
are beginning to look upon wind as a noxious
disturbing influence. In a well-established and
connected system of communications, there is
little or no use, and often a good deal of harm,
in reaching a place before the appointed time.
Thus there is a tendency to decline the aid of

1 Truran on the Iron Manufacture of Great Britain, p. 242.

L

146

The Coal Question.

sails even when the wind is favourable and strong,
and, unless for the purpose of saving fuel, a
point little attended to as yet, it cannot he said
that there is any benefit to he derived from sails
equivalent to their trouble and cost. It is cer-
tainty that is the highest benefit of steam com-
munication.

The regularity and rapidity of a steam vessel
render it an economical mode of conveyance even
for a heavy freight like coal. The first cost of a
steam collier is five times as much as for sailing
colliers of equal tonnage. But then capital
invested in the steam vessel is many times as
efficient as in the sailing vessel. A steam collier
can receive her cargo of 1,200 tons at New-
castle in four hours, reach London in thirty-two
hours, discharge by steam hydraulic machinery
in ten hours, and return to N ewcastle with water
ballast within seventy-six hours for the round
voyage. A single collier has been known to
make fifty-seven voyages to London in one year,
delivering 62,842 tons of coal with a crew of
twenty-one persons. To accomplish the same
work with sailing colliers would require sixteen
vessels, and 144 hands. 1

The same necessity for regularity may be still

1 O. M. Palmer, Report of the British Association, 1863, p. 697.

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 147

more clearly seen in land conveyance. A wind-
waggon would undoubtedly be the cheapest kind
of conveyance if it would always go the right
way. Simon Stevin invented such a carriage,
which carried twenty-eight persons, and is said
to have gone seven leagues an hour. 1 Sailing
coal-waggons were tried by Sir Humphrey Mack-
worth at Neath about the end of the seventeenth
century, and Waller eulogizes these “new sailing
waggons, ■ for the cheap carriage of his coal to
the waterside, whereby one horse does the work
of ten at all times ; but when any wind is stirring
(which is seldom wanting near the sea), one man
and a small sail do the work of’ twenty.” 2

Nearly a century later Hi chard Lovell Edge-
worth spent forty years’ labour in trying to bring
wind carriages into use. But no ingenuity could
prevent them from being uncertain : and their
rapidity with a strong breeze was such, that, as
was said of Stevin’s carriage, “they seemed to
fly, rather than roll along the ground.” Such
rapidity not under full control must be in the
highest degree dangerous.

“Nothing could at first sight have seemed

1 See a curious account in the British Museum, under the name
Stevin, 1G52.

2 Smiles’ Engineers, vol. iii. p. 73.

148

The Coal Question.

more improbable than the success of the steam
locomotive over the atmospheric locomotive.
The power of the air, which was absolutely
gratuitous, was proved to be capable of impelling
railway carriages as effectually as the power of
steam, generated by coals which were procured
at a great cost, and were brought from a con-
siderable distance. But the conditions under
which the force of the atmosphere could be
applied were so onerous that the invention ceased
to present the character of an aid, and its use
has consequently been discontinued .” 1

It is the characteristic of certainty which led
Brindley strongly to prefer canals to improved
river navigations. Rivers he regarded as only
fit to feed canals, and as being themselves subject
to floods and droughts, he characterised them “ as
out of the power of art to remedy .”' 2 Many of
Brindley’s finest engineering works on the Bridge-
water Canal were directed to warding off the in-
terference of river floods. Yet even his great

1 Plutology ; or, the Theory of Efforts to satisfy Human Wants. By
W. E. Hearn, LL.ID. Professor of Political Economy in the University
of Melbourne, 1864, p. 199. This work appears to me both in sound-
ness and originality the most advanced treatise on political economy
which has appeared, and it should be familiar to every student of the
science.

2 Smiles* Engineers, vol. i. p. 458.

149

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coed.

canal was subject to be frozen up in winter and
to be let dry for repairs in summer, and we could
not tolerate the inconvenience and loss wbicb a
stoppage of traffic would now occasion in our
large and nicely -jointed system of trade.

Uncertainty will for ever render aerial con-
veyance a commercial impossibility. A balloon
or aerial machine does not enjoy like a skip tbe
reaction of a second medium. It is subject to
the full influence of the wind. Thus, even if an
aerial machine could be propelled by some in-
ternal power from fifty to a hundred miles an
hour, it could not make head against a gale. To
say nothing of the facts that balloon travel-
ling must be dangerous, that it is really de-
pendent on the use of fuel, and cannot, as far as
we can yet see, ever be rendered practicable or
cheap, it is, beyond all this, subject to natural un-
certainty necessarily precluding its general use.

Atmospheric or terrestrial electricity has, no
doubt, suggested itself to some as a source of
power. The thunder-cloud, the aurora borealis,
and the earth-current of the telegraphic wire,
are natural manifestations of electric power,
which might possibly be utilized. But such
secondary forces are altogether inconsiderable in
amount, compared with the forces of heat and

150

The Coal Question.

wind, from which they doubtless arise. In fact,
they are scarcely sensible, except during thunder,
auroral or magnetic storms, when they become
destructive, and interrupt our telegraphic com-
munications. We should no more think of wait-
ing for a magnetic storm to move our engines,
than Brindley would have thought of waiting
for a mountain torrent to float his canal boats.
The first essential of a motive force is constancy ;
natural electricity, on the contrary, possesses all
the characteristics of uncertainty and extreme
irregularity, which are most opposed to utility.

We meet, however, a constant and manageable
source of force in water power. The water-
wheel, or the turbine, possesses a natural ten-
dency to uniformity of motion, even more perfect
than that bestowed on the engine by Watt’s
“ governor.” Water power is, in this respect,
the best motive power, and is sometimes used on
this account, where a very delicate machine re-
quires to be driven at a perfectly constant rate.
When an abundant natural fall of water is at
hand, nothing can be cheaper or better than
water power. But everything depends upon
local circumstances. The occasional mountain
torrent is simply destructive. Many streams
and rivers only contain sufficient water half the

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 151

year round, and costly reservoirs alone could
keep up the summer supply. In flat countries
no engineering art could procure any considerable
supply of natural water power, and in very few
places do we find water power free from occa-
sional failure by drought.

The necessity, again, of carrying the work to
the power, not the power to the work, is a dis-
advantage in water power, and wholly prevents
that concentration of works in one neighbour-
hood which is highly advantageous to the per-
fection of our mechanical system. Even the cost
of conveying materials often overbalances the
cheapness of water power. The splendid Katrine
Water Mills recently constructed by Mr. Eair-
bairn are in the best natural circumstances, and
give a nominal power of 100 horses at an annual
cost of 1,260 1. But Mr. Eairbairn calculates
that an equivalent force from coals, at 7s. per
ton, would only cost 1,100/., and the difference
is probably more than balanced by the cost of
conveying raw materials - and products to and
from the mill, with tlib possibility, too, of an
occasional scarcity of water during drought. 1

It is usually possible, with more or less labour,
to procure water power artificially, to store it up,

1 Fairbairn ou Mills and Mill-Work. p. S'.).

152

The Coal Question.

and convey and expend it where we like. Those
who are acquainted with Sir W. Armstrong’s
beautiful apparatus for working cranes, dock-
gates, and performing other occasional services,
will probably allow that the most perfect con-
ceivable system of machine labour might be
founded on hydraulic power. Imagine an in-
definite number of windmills, tidal-mills, and
water-mills employed to pump water into a few
immense reservoirs near our factory towns.
Water power might thence be distributed and
sold, as water is now sold for domestic purposes.
Not only all large machines, but every crane,
every lathe, every tool might be worked by water
from a supply pipe, and in our houses a multi-
tude of domestic operations, such as ventilation,
washing, the turning of the spit, might be faci-
litated by water power.

The first suggestion of a system of storing and
distributing power seems to be due to Denis
Papin, the Prench refugee engineer, the same
who suggested the use of the steam-engine
piston. 1 In the Transactions of the Royal So-
ciety for the year 1687 2 he described a method of
prolonging the action of water-ivheels by drawing
and forcing air through tubes, which seems to in-
1 See p. 103. 1 No. 186, p. 263, Jan. 1687.

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 153

volve the principle of the borin g machines of the
Mont Cenis tunnel, the new coal-cutting machine,
and pneumatic and hydraulic apparatus generally .
And it was Bramah, a second French engineer,
domiciled here, who first showed in practice the
wonderful capabilities of hydraulic power. And so
controllable, safe, clean, and irresistible is hydro-
static pressure, either of air or water, that, now
our mechanical shill in construct! on is sufficiently
advanced, it must come more and more into use.
We might almost anticipate from its wide adop-
tion a perfect Utopian system of machine labour,
in which human labour would he restricted to
the simple direction of the hydraulic pressure.

But before indulging in imaginary approxima-
tions to perfection, it is well to inquire into the
several conditions of possibility. To the capa-
bilities of hydrostatic pressure there is perhaps
physically speaking scarcely a limit, but com-
mercially speaking our command of water power,
or hydrostatic power, in whatever form, is nearly
limited to our command of steam. It is steam
that presents us with hydrostatic power in its
most abundant and available form. Water
power in uniform abundance is to be had, in
this country at least, only through steam ; and
all experience points to the fact that , instead of

154

The Coal Question.

water being a possible commercial substitute for
steam, it is steam that from its first use has been
a substitute for water power.

A brief consideration of the history of the
steam-engine will put this fact in the clearest
light. Though water power had been in use
since the time of the Itomans, a great want was
clearly felt in the seventeenth century of some
new power, antithetical to water power, so to
speak, and capable of overcoming it, so that
drowned mines might be pumped dry, and water
might be raised to furnish artificial water power,
where a natural supply was not to be had. The
earliest explicit patent for a new engine was
directed to the raising of water , 1 and the
“ Exact and True Definition ” of the Marquis of
Worcester’s engine clearly expressed a similar
purpose.

“ There being indeed no place but either
wanteth water, or is overburdened therewith . . .
by this engine either defect is remediable.”
Ilence the Marquis calls his invention a “ stu-
pendous water commanding engine,” and truly
regarded it as a new primum mobile which was
to overcome the force of falling water.

1 Sec tlir patent of J!>3I, in Rvmcr's FhmIoki.

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coed. 155

His appreciation of the value of water power
is shown by his remarkable motto —

“ Whosoever is master of weight is master of force,
"Whosoever is master of water is master of both.”

“And consequently,” said he, “to him all for-
cible actions and achievements are easy, which
are in any wise beneficial to, or for, mankind.”
Savery had no less correct and exalted notions
of what his engine might accomplish by simply
overcoming the gravity of water. It generated
an universal motive power ; for he said, “ I have
only this to urge, that water in its fall from any
determinate height, has simply a force answer-
able to, and equal to the force that raises it ;” 2
and he hints at “ what may yet he brought to
work by a steady stream and the rotation, or
circular motion of a waterwheel,” and “ what use
this engine may he put to in working of mil ls,
especially where coals are cheap.”

Now during the greater part of last century
the steam-engine did perform the duty alluded
to ; it did pump up water and furnish artificial
water power for turning mills and winding coals
from mines. At the Coalbrookdale Iron W orks it
accomplished an inestimable service by enabling

1 Harleian Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 526.

5 Miner's Friend, pp, 26, 29.

156

The Coed Question.

Darby to maintain and increase the blast of his
new coal furnaces, an atmospheric engine being
used to return the toater from the lower to the
higher mill-pond .'

Had not the introduction of the crank, fly-
wheel, and governor by W att, enabled us to com-
municate equable circular motion directly from
a steam-engine to a machine, the water-wheel
supplied with water by an engine would to this
day be the source of motive power. As it is, of
course steam power used directly is cheaper than
steam power used indirectly. Water power is
now only used where a natural fall is easily
available. Such falls had in general become
monopolised property from time immemorial,
and naturally became the seats of factory labour,
half a century or more ago. But it was the
steam-engine which alone could allow the growth
of our factory system, as seen in the fact that
steam power employed in factories now exceeds
water power six-fold. In 5,117 textile factories
existing in the United Kingdom in 1856, the
power employed consisted of, 2 —

Horse power.

Steam power 137,711

Waterpower 23,724

Total 161,435

1 See chap. XT.

2 Chadwick, Report of the Brit. Assoc. 1861, p. 210.

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 157

The water-wheel, moreover, has, by the continued
exertions of our great engineers, from Smeaton
down to Taii-bairn, been carried near its mathe-
matical maximum of efficiency, whereas the
engine yet gives us only a fraction of the power
it may be made to give. The improvement of
the engine has, in fact, caused it to be substi-
tuted successively in many mills before worked
by water; and could its efficiency be again
doubled, as is not impossible, hardly could the
best water power in the country withstand the
superior economy of steam.

The predominance of steam over water is seen
in many other instances. It is a steam-engine
that is used to supply water power for Sir W.
Armstrong’s apparatus, as at the Liverpool and
Birkenhead Docks. A handsome and lofty build-
insr will be seen near the Birkenhead Great

o

Bloat, containing a reservoir of artificial water
power thus obtained. Again, it is only the
engine that can supply water for the manufac-
turing and domestic uses of our great towns like
Manchester and London. Our factories, print-
works, sugar refineries, breweries, and other
works, find it a matter of immense cost and
difficulty to get a plentiful supply of water from
wells and pumping engines, or from natural

158

The Coal Question.

sources. And if we can hardly supply our
boilers with water, how can we dream of ever
using water, instead of steam, in the cylinder,
and as the motive power ?

The predominance of steam is further seen in
its actual substitution for the windmill, or the
tidal mill. Wind-cornmills still go on working
until they are burnt down, or out of repair ; they
are then never rebuilt, hut their work is trans-
ferred to steam-mills. Yet the grinding of com
is a work most suitable to the variable power of
the wind. Again, if there is anything which
could he cheaply done by wind, it is the raising
of large masses of water where occasional irregu-
larities are of no consequence, the rain and wind
mostly coming together. Yet the windmills long
employed to drain the Lincolnshire Lens, as
practised in Holland, were at last superseded by
powerful steam-engines, on the recommendation
of Mr. Rennie . 1 Tidal mills are no novelty. One
is mentioned in the first page and column of the
Domesday Book as existing at Dover. A tidal
pump was long moved by the current under Old
London Bridge, and supplied the City with water.
A tidal corn-mill, too, of very ingenious con-
struction, subsequently existed at Woolwich . 2

1 Smiles’ Engineers, vol. i. p. 67. 2 Barlow’s Cyclopedia,

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 159

Not long ago Sir Robert Kane, in his “ Indus-
trial Resources of Ireland,” 1 supposed tidal mills
to be capable of supplying motive power to
Ireland.

The application of the tides to machine labour
is rendered difficult on account of their variation
from day to day. To gain a constant head of
water always available we must either construct
elaborate and costly high and low tide basins, or
else we must use the variable tidal wheel to
pump up water into a great reservoir. The
estuary of the Dee is one of the places best
adapted to give a vast tidal power, and an anony-
mous but apparently able engineer has calculated
what power might be utilised there. 2 He con-
siders that the equivalent steam power might be
had at a capital cost of £4,000,000, a sum wholly
insufficient to provide the tidal works. Hence
he concludes that the tidal scheme would be at
least commercially impracticable, and he doubts
whether it would be at all possible mechanically
speaking to construct embankments and tidal
basins on loose sands.

And whatever schemes of this sort be pro-
posed we should remember that the tendency of

1 First edition, p. 105.

2 See t-lie Journal “ Engineering,” 30th March, 1866, p. 195.

160

The Coal Question.

tidal docks and reservoirs to silt up is an in-
superable objection in cost. Engineers, from tbe
time of Brindley, have constantly found that
there is nothing more nearly beyond the remedy
of art than the silting up of harbours, docks,
and reservoirs. The great new Birkenhead Docks
are threatened with this evil, and a tidal mill and
reservoir constructed on the opposite side of the
Mersey about half a century ago was soon aban-
doned for a similar reason.

It will, therefore, appear obvious that if
toe are to have a water power millennium of
machine labour , which is physically possible, it
must yet be using steam as the ultimate source
of power.

To go on to other suggestions, we may notice
the very prevalent opinion that the electro-mag-
netic engine will some day supersede the steam-
engine. Such an engine, however, must be
worked by an electro-positive metallic element as
the source of power. Now it is coal or fuel only
by which we can smelt ores and obtain the metal
required for the engine, and it is demonstrable
t hat we should get far more force by using coal
directly under a steam-engine boiler, than by
using it to smel t metals for an elcctro-magnetic
engine. After the exposure of the claims of such

Of Supposed Substitu tes for Coed. 161

an. engine by Baron Liebig, 1 I need not dwell
upon it. The predominance of steam, too, is
shown most clearly in the fact that the steam-
engine is used conversely to turn Faraday’s mag-
neto-electric machines, and supply electricity for
telegraph purposes, and for illuminating light-
houses. And while force is found to be the
cheapest source of electricity, it is impossible
that electricity should be the cheapest source of
force. The electro-magnetic engine might be
found a convenient device for applying or con-
centrating force in some particular circumstances,
but the force must ultimately be furnished by
coal.

Hitherto we have considered mechanical force
only, but it is obvious that if coal were used up
we should want some source of heat as well as
force. A favourite notion is to employ wind,
water, or tidal mills to turn magneto-electric
machines, and by the stream of electricity pro-
duced to decompose water, thus furnishing a
continuous supply of artificial gaseous fuel.
Such a plan was proposed in the Times during
the discussion on the French Treaty. But an
answer, attributed to Dr. Percy of the School of
Mines, soon appeared, showing the amount of

1 Letters on Chemistry, No. 12.

31

162

The Coal Question,

fuel derivable to be inconsiderable. The waste
of power must be vastly greater in such a process
of transmutation than in the system of artificial
water power which we have considered. Besides,
if uniform experience is to be trusted, a steam-
engine would be a much more economical means
of turning the magneto-electric machines than
either a wind, water, or tidal machine. We
should therefore only use coal in a roundabout
manner to generate a less valuable fuel. Bor the
hydrogen gas generated, though in some instances
valuable, would in general be immensely less
convenient than coal. Bor equal weights, it
gives about four times as much heat as coal, but
hydrogen is so light that for equal volumes it gives
one five-thousandth part as much heat. To com-
press it in a small space would require more force
than the combustion of the fuel itself would fur-
nish, and gas companies do not find it convenient
to compress their gas. Hydrogen too has so
much higher a diffusive power than coal-gas, that
it could hardly be retained in gasometers or
ordinary pipes. Even the loss of coal-gas by
leakage is said to be nearly twenty-five per cent.

Of course it is useless to think of substituting
any other kind of fuel for coal. We cannot
revert to timber fuel, for “ nearly the entire

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 163

surface of our island would be required to grow
timber sufficient for the consumption of the iron
manufacture alone.” 1 And I have independently
calculated, from the known produce of conti-
nental forests, 2 and the comparative heat-pro-
ducing values of timber and coal, 3 that forests of
an extent two and a half times exceeding the
whole area of the United Kingdom would be
required to furnish even a theoretical equivalent
to our annual coal produce. Practically, how-
ever, there are inconveniences about the use of
timber that would altogether prevent it from
nourishing a large manufacturing system. Wood
fuel is superior to coal in the single case of the
iron smelting furnace ; but in most other uses,
the greater bulk of wood, and the large areas of
forest land over which it is spread, necessarily
render it a costly and inefficient fuel compared
with coal.

Peat, or turf, again, may no doubt be turned
into fuel ; but, in spite of what has been said in
its favour by Sir P. Kane, 4 all experience shows
that it is immensely inferior as regards cost and

1 Taylors Archaeology of the Coal Trade, p. 176.

5 Percy’s Metallurgy, vol. i. pp. 71, 72.

3 Watt’s Chemical Dictionary, Article Fuel.

4 Industrial Resources of Ireland, 1st ed. chap. ii.

M 2

164

The Coal Question.

efficiency to coal. It is usually full, too, of
phosphorus and sulphur, and thus has not even
those advantages of purity which render timber
so valuable for the iron blast furnace.

Petroleum has of late years become the matter
of a most extensive trade, and has even been pro-
posed by American inventors for use in marine
steam-engine boilers. It is undoubtedly superior
to coal for many purposes, and is capable of
replacing it. But then, What is Petroleum but
the Essence of Coal, distilled from it by terrestrial
or artificial heat ? Its natural supply is far more
limited and uncertain than that of coal, its price
is about 15 1. per ton already, and an artificial
supply can only be had by the distillation of
some kind of coal at considerable cost. To ex-
tend the use of petroleum, then, is only a new
way of pushing the consumption of coal. It is
more likely to be an aggravation of the drain
than a remedy.

Coal has all those characteristics which entitle
it to be considered the best natural source of
motive power. It is like a spring, wound up
during geological ages for us to let down. Just
as in alluvial deposits of gold-dust we enjoy the
labour of the natural forces which for ages were
breaking down the quartz veins and washing out

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 165

the gold ready for us, so in our seams we have
peculiar stores of force collected from the sun-
beams for us. Coal contains light and heat
bottled up in the earth, as Stephenson said, for
tens of thousands of years, and now again brought
forth and made to work for human purposes.

The amount of power contained in coal is
almost incredible. In burning a single pound of
coal there is force developed equivalent to that
of 11,422,000 pounds weight falling one foot, and
the actual useful force got from each pound of coal
in a good steam-engine is that of 1,000,000 lbs.
falling throngh a foot; that is to say, there is
spring enough in coal to raise a million times its
own weight a foot high. Or again, suppose a
farmer to despatch a horse and cart to bring
a ton of coals to work a portable engine, occupy-
ing four hours on the way. The power brought
in the coal is 2,800 times the power expended
in bringing it, and the amount of useful force
actually got from it Avill probably exceed by 100
times or more that of the horse as employed in
the cart. In coal we pre-eminently have, as the
partner of Watt said, “ what all the world wants
— Powee.” All things considered, it is not rea-
sonable to suppose or expect that the pou er of
coal will ever he superseded by anything better.

166

The Coal Question.

It is the naturally best source of power, as air
and water and gold and iron are, each for its
- own purposes, the most useful of substances, and
such as will never he superseded.

Of course I do not deny that if our coal were
gone, or nearly so, and of high price, we might
find wind, water, or tidal mills, a profitable sub-
stitute for coal. But this would only be on the
principle that half a loaf is better than no bread.
It would not enable us to keep up our old
efficiency, nor to compete with nations enjoying
yet undiminished stores of fuel. And there is
little doubt, too, that a century hence the steam-
engine will be two or three-fold as efficient as at
present, turning the balance of economy so far
the more in favour of those who then possess
coal, and against those who have to resort to
water or wind.

This is a point which I must insist upon as
finally decisive of the question. The progress of
science, and the improvement in the arts, 'will tend
to increase the supremacy of steam and coal. Any
mechanist knows that the water-wheel and the
windmill have been brought, by the exertion of
our engineers, Brindley, Smeaton, Bennie, Tel-
ford, and Baii-bairn, near to their mathematical
limit of efficiency ; so that we can do little more

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 167

tlian improve tlie mechanical construction, and
gain some small percentage of additional power
by reducing the friction of the machinery. The
steam-engine, on the other hand, at least equally
admits of improvement in mechanical details ;
hut beyond this, in the principles of heat and
vapour, we see clearly the possibility of multi-
plying at least three-fold the efficiency of fuel.
If there is anything certain in the progress of
the arts and sciences it is that this gain of power
wall he achieved, and that all competition with
the power of coal will then be out of the ques-
tion. In short, the general course of science and
improvement will only lead us the more to regret
the limited extent of our coal resources.

But let us further remember that coal is now
a pre-eminent gift in our actual possession,
wffiereas if any wholly new r source of power he
some day discovered, we have no reason to sup-
pose that our island will he as pre-eminently
endowed with it as with coal.

Mr. Babbage has applied his rare genius to
this question, and what he has once said is in-
capable of improvement. Passing over the period
which this work considers, when coal will be
scarce here and plentiful elsewhere, he has
thrown his thoughts forward to the time when
coal will be scarce everywhere. Heat, he thinks,

168

The Coal Question.

may then be got from the hot springs of Ischia,
“ In Iceland,” he continues , 1 “ the sources of
heat are still more plentiful ; and their proximity
to large masses of ice seems almost to point out
the future destiny of that island. ... In a
future age power may become the staple com-
modity of the Icelanders.”

Power is at present our staple commodity, and
Mr. Babbage clearly saw, more than thirty years
ago, that with our coal power must pass from us.

Among the residual possibilities of unforeseen
events, it is just possible that some day the sun-
beams may be collected, or that some source of
force now unknown may be detected. But such
a discovery would simply destroy our peculiar
industrial supremacy. The study of electricity
has already been zealously cultivated on the
Continent with this view, — “ England,” it is said,
“ is to lose her superiority as a manufacturing
country, inasmuch as her vast store of coals will
no longer avail her, as an economical source of
motive power .” 2 And while foreigners clearly
see that the peculiar material energy of Eng-
land depends on coal, we must not dwell in
such a fool’s paradise as to imagine we can do
without coal what we do with it.

1 JSconomy of Manufactures, 3rd ed. 1833, §

2 Liebig’s Letters on Chemistry, No. 12, p. 154.

Of the Natural Law of Social Growth. 169

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE NATURAL LAW OF SOCIAL GROWTH.

Before proceeding with this question we must
understand clearly what we mean hy the progress
of a country. We must ascertain how that pro-
gress is to be measured, and when it may he
called uniform.

Suppose it stated that in a certain country
during one year the consumption of coal has
increased hy one million tons. The statement is
almost useless. We learn from it, indeed, that
the country is progressing rather than going
backwards, hut this is all. We do not learn
the rate at which it is progressing. If the pre-
vious consumption were only one million tons
in a year, the increase would he enormous, for
it would consist in doubling the consumption.
With a previous consumption of ten million
tons, the increase, being ten per cent., might
still he great. But on the present consumption

170

The Coal Question.

of England, amounting to eighty-six million
tons, an increase of one million is not great,
being scarcely more than one per cent.

Again, the population of England and Wales
increased between 1811 and 1821 by 1,722,574
persons, and between 1851 and 1861 by 2,172,177
■persons, but it increased eighteen for every
hundred of the existing population in the former
period, and only twelve for every hundred in
the latter. Though the recent increase was of
greater absolute, it was of less relative, amount ;
it was, truly speaking, at a less rate. We ought,
in short, in statistical matters to treat all quan-
tities relatively to each other, and we ought to
cultivate the habit of so regarding them.

The reason is not far to seek. One generation
naturally imitates the earlier one, from which its
education is drawn. The son takes after his
father — the same in body and mind, in passion
and in judgment. Individual variations of
character and career are of course innumerable.
But on the average it is true that the son is as
the father ; he marries at the same age, strives
at the same success in business, to gain the same
fortune, to rear and educate the same family. If
all things then go on the same, if no deteriora-
tion, no new obstacle presents itself, a family

Of the Natural Law of Social Groicth. 171

that rears a double progeny of children may
expect a fourfold progeny of grandchildren, and
an eightfold progeny of great-grandchildren.
And though this could not he expected to occur
in a single family subject to every accident of
life, it may be expected on an average of a great
mass of cases.

There are few countries where the population
has ever doubled in a single generation, but the
same reasoning holds good of any other rate.
lYe are about doubly as numerous as our grand-
fathers. If we are in other respects like them —
equally vigorous and enterprising, and not subject
to any new exterior obstacles, we may expect our
grandchildren to he doubly as numerous as
ourselves.

This is one way of stating the law that men,
as well as all living creatures, tend to increase in
an uniform geometrical ratio. And an uniform
rate of growth means _an uniform ratio — an uni-
form percentage of increase — uniform multipli-
cation in uniform periods. The law is true and
necessary as a mathematical law. If children
do as their fathers, they must increase like them;
if they do not, some change must have occurred
in character or circumstances.

Such is the principle of population as estab-

172

The Coal Question.

lished by Malthus in bis celebrated essay. Of
the moral and social consequences he deduced
from it I need say nothing at present. They
have been accepted for the most part by political
economists. JBut the statement that living beings
of the same nature and in the same circumstances
multiply in the same geometrical ratio, is self-
evident when the meaning of the words is
understood.

Now what is true of the mere number of the
people is true of other elements of their con-
dition. If our parents made a definite social
advance, then, unless we are unworthy of our
parents, or in different circumstances, we should
make a similar advance. If our parents doubled
their income, or doubled the use of iron, or the
agricultural produce of the country, then so
ought we, unless we are either changed in cha-
racter or circumstances.

But great care is here necessary. We are
getting to the gist of the subject. Even if we
do not change in inward character, yet our ex-
terior circumstances are usually changing. This
is what Malthus argued. He said that though
our numbers tend to increase in uniform ratio,
we cannot expect the same to take place with
the supply of food. We cannot double the pro-

Of the Natural Law of Social Groicth. 173

duce of the soil, time after time, ad infinitum.
When we want more off a field we cannot get it
by simply doubling the labourers. Any quantity
of capital, and labour, and skill may fail to do it,
though discoveries from time to time do allow
of a considerable increase. Yet the powers
and capabilities of organic and inorganic nature
always present this remarkable contrast. The
former are always relative to the number of ex-
isting beings, and tend unceasingly to increase.
But exterior nature presents a certain absolute
and inexorable limit.

Now the whole question turns upon the applica-
tion of these views to the consumption of coal.
Our subsistence no longer depends upon our pro-
duce of corn. The momentous repeal of the
Corn Laws throws us from corn upon coal. It
marks, at any rate, the epoch when coal was
finally recognised as the staple produce of the
country ; — it marks the ascendency of the manu-
facturing interest, which is only another name
for the development of the use of coal.

The application, however, is a little compli-
cated. The quantity of coal consumed is really
a quantity of two dimensions, the number of
the people, and the average quantity used by
each. Even if each person continued to use an

174

The Coal Question.

invariable quantity of coal per annum, yet the
total produce would increase in the same ratio
as the number of the people. But added to this
is the fact that we do each of us in general
increase our consumption of coal. In round
numbers, the population has about doubled since
the beginning of the century, but the consump-
tion of coal has increased eightfold, and more.
The consumption per head of the population has
therefore increased fourfold.

Again, the quantity consumed by each indi-
vidual is a composite quantity, increased either
by multiplying the scale of former applications
of coal, or finding wholly new applications.
We cannot indeed always be doubling the length
of our railways, the magnitude of our ships, and
bridges, and factories. In every kind of enter-
prise we shall no doubt meet a natural limit of
convenience, or commercial practicability, as we
do in the cultivation of the land. I do not mean
a fixed and impassable limit, but as it were an
elastic obstacle, which we may ever push against
a little further, but ever with increasing diffi-
culty.

But the new applications of coal are of an
unlimited character. In the command of force,
molecular and mechanical, we have the key to

Of the Natural Law of Social Growth. 175

all the infinite varieties of change in place or
kind of which nature is capable. No chemical
or mechanical operation, perhaps, is quite im-
possible to us, and invention consists in disco-
vering those which are useful and commercially
practicable. No a priori reason here presents
itself why each generation should not use its re-
sources of knowledge and material possessions to
make as large a proportional advance as did a
preceding generation.

And it cannot escape the attention of any
observant person that our inventions and works
do multiply in variety and scale of application.
Each success assists the development of previous
successes, and the achievement of new ones.
None of our inventions can successfully stand
alone — all are hound together in mutual depend-
ence. The iron manufacture depends on the use
of the steam-engine, and the steam-engine on the
iron manufacture. Coal and iron are essential
either in the supply of light or water, and both
these are needed in the development of our fac-
tory system. 1 The advance of the mechanical
arts gives us vast steam-hammers and mechanical
tools, and these again enable us to undertake
works of magnitude and difficulty before deemed

1 See the chapter on Invention in Mr. Hearn's Plutologij.

176

The Coal Question.

insuperable. “ The tendency of progress,” says
Sir William Armstrong , 1 “ is to quicken pro-
gress, because every acquisition in science is so
much, vantage ground for fresb attainment. We
may expect, therefore, to increase our speed as
we struggle forward.”

For once it would seem as if in fuel, as the
source of universal power, we bad found an un-
limited means of multiplying our command over
nature. But alas no ! The coal is itself limited
in quantity ; not absolutely, as regards us, but so
that each year we gain our supplies with some
increase of difficulty. There are unlimited no-
velties to make our own, had we unlimited force
to use them.

Such are the principles of our progress. But
I should be as ill-contented as any of my readers
to rest an argument upon such theory alone. I
shall appeal to experience, and show that some
of the main branches of industry depending upon
the use of coal have hitherto obeyed the law of
uniform geometrical increase. I can show that
up to the present we are in an unchecked course
of discovery and growth — that old applications
of coal are being extended, and yet admit of

1 Resources of the three Northern Rivers, quoted in the Quarterly
Journal of Science, No. 2, p. 371.

Of the Natural Law of Social Growth, 177

great extension, while new ones are continually
being added. And I shall infer that a continu-
ance of the same may he expected in the absence
of any extraordinary influence ; that the con-
sumption of coal will increase at a nearly con-
stant rate until some check, some natural hut
perhaps elastic boundary of our efforts, is en-
countered.

For the present our cheap supplies of coal, and
our skill in its employment, and the freedom of
our commerce with other wide lands, render us
independent of the limited agricultural area of
these islands, and take us out of the scope of
Malthus’ doctrine. We are growing rich and
numerous upon a source of wealth of which the
fertility does not yet apparently decrease with
our demands upon it. Hence the uniform and
extraordinary rate of growth which this country
presents. We are like settlers spreading in a rich
new country of which the boundaries are yet
unknown and unfelt.

But then I must point out the painful fact
that such a rate of growth will before long
, render our consumption of coal comparable until
the total supply. In the increasing depth and
difficulty of coal mining we shall meet that
vague, but inevitable boundary that will si op

178

The Coal Question.

our progress. We shall begin as it were to see
the further shore of our Black Indies. The wave
of population will break upon that shore, and
roll hack upon itself. And as settlers, unable to
choose in the far inland new and virgin soil of
unexceeded fertility, will fall hack upon that
which is next best, and will advance their tillage
up the mountain side, so we, unable to discover
new coal-fields as shallow as before, must deepen
our mines with pain and cost.

There is too this most serious difference to he
noted. A farm, however far pushed, will under
proper cultivation continue to yield for ever a
constant crop. But in a mine there is no repro-
duction, and the produce once pushed to the
utmost will soon begin to fail and sink towards
zero.

So far then as our wealth and progress depend
upon the superior command of coal we must not
only stop — we must go back.

Growth and Migrations of our Popula tion . 179

CHAPTER X.

OF THE GROWTH AND MIGRATIONS OF OUR
POPULATION.

It is in several ways essential to onr inquiry to
examine, briefly, the increase and movements of
our population, and the extraordinary effects
which the growing use of coal has exercised
upon it.

Our examination must be restricted to England
and Wales, or at most to Great Britain. Ireland,
if referred to at all, must be contrasted with
England in natural and social condition. Prac-
tically and commercially Ireland is devoid of coal.
In spite of the large area of the Irish coal
measures, there are only 73 collieries in Ireland,
of which about 46 are in work. The total pro-
duce was 125,000 tons in 1864, and is on the
decrease. We can only attribute this extraor-

180

The Coal Question.

dinarv fact to the inferior quality of the coal,
and the great cost of mining it. “ The coals of
Ballycastle in the north are of a quality so
inferior, that English coal is in use within a
very few miles from the pits ; the coals of Arigna
are almost equally inferior in quality ; Avhilst
the anthracite or stone coal of Kilkenny, from
its deficiency of flame, can only he partially
used, and from its weight and density of texture,
is three times more expensive in excavation
than the bituminous coal of the English
fields.” 1

Ireland cannot raise a manufacturing system
alongside of England when she has to buy from
England the chief requisite of manufacturing
industry. The manufactures of Ireland have
been abolished by the steam-engines of England , 2
and it is a persistent but strange error of authors
and statesmen to suppose that Ireland can still
find wealth in imitation and rivalry with England.
The industrial efforts of the Irish should he
exerted in a contrary direction to those of
England, and agriculture and handicraft employ-
ments in which fuel affords no aid will he their
best resource. If it be found that such pursuits

1 H. Fairbaim, Political Economy of Railroads, 1836, p. 116.

3 Ibid. p. 108.

Growth and , Migrations of our Population. 181

will not sustain an increasing population, we must
learn to conform to the conditions under which
we are placed ; and when rightly viewed the
recent exodus of the Irish people, by which a
population of 8,175,124 persons in 1841 was
reduced to 5,798,967 in 1861 is a fact confirm-
ing, in the negative way, many conclusions to
he drawn concerning the progress of our own
population.

Scotland will be occasionally referred to. It
exhibits the bright and dark features of English
progress, intensified in degree. While the general
rise of Scotch industry, especially in the cases of
the Glasgow iron trade, and the lowland agri-
culture, surpasses the highest instances of English
progress, the poverty and distress of the High-
land and sterile parts, and the emigration thence
arising, exceed anything we have suffered in the
agricultural parts of England. But the want of
statistical data concerning Scotland and Ireland
would generally oblige us to give our attention
to England alone, were this not also desirable for
the sake of simplicity.

The following table exhibits the progress of
the population of England and Wales for nearly
three centuries, according to the most reliable
estimates and enumerations : —

182

The Coal Question.

POPULATION OP ENGLAND AND WALES.

Year.

Population.

Numerical
increase for 10
years.

Rate of Increase
per cent, for 10
yeare.

1570

4,160,321 1

1600

4,811,718

217,132

5 increase.

1630

5,600,517

262,933

5

1670

5,773,646

43,282

1

55

1700

6,045,008

90,454

2

>5

1701

6,121,525 2

1711

6,252,105

130,580

2

>5

1721

6,252,750

645

0

55

1731

6,182,972

— 69,778

1 decrease.

1741

6,153,227

— 29,745

0

55

1751

6,335,840

182,613

3 increase.

1761

6,720,547

384,707

6

55

1771

7,153,494

432,947

6

„

1781

t ,5 / 3, / 8/

420,293

6

55

1791

8,255,617

681,830

9

55

1801

9,192,810

937,193

11

55

1811

10,467,728

1,274,918

14

J)

1821

12,190,302

1,722,574

18

55

1831

14,070,681

1,880,37.9

16

55

1841

16,050,542

1,979,861

14

55

1851

18,109,410

2,058,868

13

1861

20,281,587

2,172,177

12

55

The estimates for the 16th, 17th, and 18tli

1 Preface to Census Returns of 1841, pp. 34 — 37.

2 170] — 1801 including army, &c. abroad : Census of 18(41 , General
Report, p. 22. See the Diagram fronting the title-page.

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 183

centuries, however carefully calculated from the
registers of births, deaths, and marriages, and
from other data, are not true to a nicety; but
they afford at any rate conclusive evidence that
in the first half of last century the population
was nearly stationary, and occasionally diminish-
ing. About the middle of the century, it began
to grow again; and the rate of growth rose
until, in the beginning of this century, it
reached a height altogether unprecedented in
the history of the country. In the period 1811
—21, especially we find the increase as high as
18 per cent, or treble the rate which prevailed
in the previous half century.

In passing I will draw attention to the fact
that the' ratios or rates per cent, of increase show
some approach to uniformity over considerable
periods of time. The simple numerical increase
of population presents no such uniformity, and
in late times is thoroughly divergent. In fact
the arithmetic increase of the four years, 1857 —
18(51, was as great as that of the whole century,
1651 — 1751. 1 It is clear, from the mere inspec-
tion of the table, that the notion of an arithmetic
series is wholly inapplicable to matters of popu-
lation and statistics. We must look to the ratio

1 General Report upon the Genius of IS fit. p. 2 m 2.

184

The Coal Question.

or proportional rate of increase, as measuring
progress or marking the changes of condition of
our population.

Looking now to the rates of increase from
1821 to the present time, we are at once struck
hy a very distinct and continuous decrease. The
rate of 18 per cent, diminishes successively to
16, 14, 13, and 12 per cent. There is an appear-
ance of convergency — of a, new approach to a
station ary condition .

Properly examined, however, this appearance
is found to he very deceptive. When necessary
allowances are made, our growth up to the present
lime is seen to he one of increasing rapidity.

In the first place, a nation is a very composite
whole, of which each part may change at its
own rate. Our population especially is divided
into the distinct agricultural and manufacturin'?
masses — contrasted as they are in every point of
nature, history, and social condition. The one
represents Old England in its maturity ; the.
other, New England, already the greater, yet
still growing as in youth.

We may compare the condition of these two
great portions hy means of the rates of progress
of some of the most purely agricultural and
most purely manufacturing counties : —

Growth and Migrations of our ’Population. 185 .

AGRICULTURAL COUNTIES.

INCREASE OF POPULATION PER CENT. 1

1801—11.

1811—21.

1821—31.

1831—41.

1841-51.

1851— 81.

Buckingham . .

9

14

9

6

5

3

Cambridge .

13

21

18

14

13

— 5

Devon ....

12

15

13

7

6

3

Dorset ....

9

16

10

10

5

2

Norfolk . . .

7

18

13

6

;

2

Somerset . . .

10

17

13

8

2

0

Susses . . . .

19

23

17

10

15

8

Westmoreland .

12

12

7

3

3

4

Wilts ....

4

14

8

8

-1

—2

MANUFACTURING COUNTIES.

INCREASE OF POPULATION PER CENT.

1S1Q—11.

1SI1— 21

1821—31.

1831—41.

1S41— 51.

1S51* — 61.

Durham . . .

10

17

24

29

27

30

Lancaster . * .

22

27

27

24

22

20

Monmouth . .

35

22

29

36

17

11

N ortkumberland

19

15

11

12

14

13

Stafford . . .

21

17

18

24

20

23

Glamorgan . .

19

20

24

35

35

37

_ 1 Census of IS 61 . Population Tables, vol. i. p. xriii. The negative
sign (— ) indicates a decrease of population, as in the eases of Cambridge,
Norfolk, and Wiltshire.

186

The Coal Question.

Comparing the above tables, we see that in
the period 1811 — 21 both the agricultural and
manufacturing populations were in a state of
rapid increase. To this is due the extraordinary
general rate of increase of the population, namely
eighteen per cent, during those ten years. But
the subsequent rapid decline of the agricultural
rate shows how impossible it was for a growing
population to find subsistence on the land. And
when we remember the prevalence of pauperism
during the period 1811 — 21 we shall be convinced
that the increase of agricultural population which
did occur, was unsound and not warranted by any
corresponding increase in the means of living.

The following numbers express the average
sum contributed by each person in England and
Wales to the legal support of the poor : —

s. d.

1801 9 1 1

1811 13 1

1821 10 7

18.31 9 9

1841 6 0

1851 5 6^

i860 5 6

1864 6 2 3

Some allowance ought to be made for the varia-
tion in the value of the currency, but the pres-

1 Porter’s Progress (1851), p. <)1.

3 Increase due to the cotton distress.

Growth and Migra tions of our Population. 187

sure of pauperism half a century ago would still
remain about double what it now is. And this
pressure was chiefly felt in the agricultural
counties. Mr. Porter, in his “ Progress of the
Nation,” 1 gave a table whence it clearly appeared
“ that the burthen of the poor’s rate in propor-
tion to the population is generally greatest in
the most agricultural counties. Suffolk, Nor-
folk, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire,
Essex, and Cambridgeshire, all essentially agri-
cultural, are the most heavily burthened with
poor ; while Lancashire, the West Biding of
Yorkshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Nottingham-
shire, and Derbyshire, which are of an opposite
character, enjoy a comparative exemption from
that burthen.” This clearly marked difference
prevents us from attributing the excessive pau-
perism of the time to the wars, or the high price
of corn, which last circumstance ought to favour
the agricultural, at the expense of the manufac-
turing population.

The laxness of the Poor-laws, the impetus
communicated by the rise of our manufacturing
and trading system, the demand for soldiers,
and perhaps other causes, seem to have induced
throughout the United Kingdom, in the early

1 Ed. 184/. p. 'Jt>.

188

The Coal Question.

part of this century, habits of unrestricted mar-
riage, which in the absence of any extraordinary
outlet for the growing population could only
lead to poverty. In Ireland the result of an
unsound but rapid growth of agricultural popu-
lation was that extraordinary emigration which
is not yet stopped. In the Scotch Highlands
the result was hardly less deplorable, or the
emigration less remarkable, though on a minor
scale. The harshness of nature rather than the
harshness of the landlords is the cause of this
emigration, which is clearly shown in the folloiv-
ing rates of progress and regress

SCOTCH HIGHLAND COUNTIES.

INCREASE OR DECREASE OE POPULATION PER CENT . 1

1801 — n.

isn— 21 .

1821 — 31 .

1 S 31 — 11 .

1841 — 51 .

1801 — 01 .

Argyll . .

6

12

4

—4

—9

—12

Eoss . . .

8

13

9

5

5

—1

Inverness .

7

10

5

3

—1

—8

Sutherland.

2

1

7

—3

4

— 2

It is interesting to compare the above with
the rates of progress in counties where the coal
and iron trades flourish : —

The negative sign ( — ) indicates a decrease of population.

Growth and Migrations of our 'Population . 189

SCOTCH MANUFACTURING COUNTIES.

INCREASE OF POPULATION PER CENT . 1

1801 — 11 .

1811 — 21 .

1821 — 31 .

1831 — 41 .

1841 — 01 .

1851 — 61 .

Ayr . . .

23

23

14

13

15

5

Lanark . .

29

28

30

34

24

19

Renfrew

18

20

19

16

3

10

Now in England our agricultural population has
received a check similar to that in the Scotch
Highlands. No inconsiderable numbers have
gone abroad, hut in general the surplus country-
population has been draughted into the towns.
Those nourished among sheep pastured hills , or
richly tilled fields, in the quiet village, or the
lonely hut, are attracted to the crowded squalid
alleys, the busy workshop, or the gloomy mine.

Mr. Smiles has explained how the population
of a hill-girt district, like Eskdale, is kept
stationary from generation to generation. “ Oh,
they swarm off,” said a native to him. “ If they
remained at home we should all he sunk in
poverty, scrambling with each other among these
hills for a hare living.” 2

1 Census of Scotland, Population Tables, p. xlii.

2 Lives of the Engineers, vol. ii, p. 291.

190

The Coal Question.

It is indeed true, as remarked by Mr. Pack-
man, 1 that an increase of population “may be
deemed a solid good, or a dreadful evil, accord-
ing to the circumstances of the country in which
it occurs. If a commensurate increase of food
and of raiment can be produced by agriculture
and by manufacture, an accession of consumers
in the home market cannot but be beneficial to
all parties ; and the increase of population in
such case may be deemed equally desirable in
itself, and conducive to national strength and
national prosperity.”

The effects of an unwarranted growth of popu-
lation are seen in the poverty of our own agri-
cultural counties, and in the wretchedness of
Ireland and the Scotch Highlands.

It is our towns which alone afford the grow-
ing subsistence which is the warrant of an
increment of population. They not only have
room for their own native born, but engulf the
best blood of the country districts. They afford
that unlimited subsistence, which could alone
enable our population to approach a constant
geometrical rate of increase.

But it must not he supposed that our towns
have maintained a constant rate of growth. I

1 Preliminary Observations to Population Abstracts, 1822, p. xxx.

Growth and Migrations of our Population . 191

have chosen thirty of the most progressive and
important English manufacturing towns, and
summed up the number of their inhabitants.

MANUFACTURING TOWNS (NOT INCLUDING
LONDON).

Population.

Numerical increase
in ten years.

Rate of increase
per cent, in ten
years.

1801

623,000

1811

763,000

140,000

22

1821

991,000

228,000

30

1831

1,352,000

361,000

36

1841

1,763,000

411,000

30

1851

2,220,000

457,000

26

1861

2,679,000

459,000

21

Such numbers alone give us an adequate notion
of our powers of growth. Our manufacturing
population has more than quadrupled itself in
sixty years; it has multiplied at a rate equivalent
to doubling in twenty-eight years. When the
new is thus viewed apart from the old, our
growth is seen to be that rather of a new colony,
than of an ancient settled country whose history
runs hack 2,000 years. And when it is con-
sidered that this country and the busy towns in

192

The Goal Question.

question have been sending forth the hundreds
of thousands of emigrants who populate Africa,
Australia, and America, I assert without fear of
contradiction, that the annals of the newest and
most flourishing settlements afford nothing so
truly astonishing as our growth. England enjoys
the stable society, the refinements and comforts,
the intellectual and historical renown which
belong to an ancient, mature, and honourable
monarchy. But she joins the good new to the
good old in a manner elsewhere unknown. In
our spreading towms, in our factories and fleets,
not to speak of our arts and sciences, our yet
living literature, and our constitution still per-
haps changing for the better, we see the great
work which is given into our care to carry on in
moderation for the good of ourselves, our pos-
terity, and the world.

But, to return, it will be seen that the rate of
progress of our town population has dropped
from thirty-six per cent, to twenty-one per cent.
Is not this an indication that even our town
population is overrunning its means of subsist-
ence, and that w r e are now converging to a sta-
tionary condition ? This is far from being true
as yet ; the rates of increase will probably not
continue falling. But in any case our industry

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 193

is divergent ; and the more so, the more nearly
we regard it in its first spring. It is the tin-
slackened progress of Durham and Glamorgan,
that most truly represents the progress of our
national industry. The growth of the popula-
tions of those counties has been already shown,
but the constant progress of our great northern
coal trade is still more clearly shown in the
following accounts of the united populations of
the five great coal towns, Newcastle, Gateshead,
Tynemouth, South Shields, and Sunderland.

NORTHERN COAL TOWNS.

Population.

Numerical increase
in ten years.

Rate of increase
per cent, in ten
years.

1801

90,825

1811

99,889

9,064

10

1821

125,128

25,239

25

1831

151,487

26,359

21

1841

192,283

40,796

27

1851

238,890

46,607

24

1861

297,752

58,862

25

London, too, a kind of great resultant and mea-
sure of the rest of the kingdom, holds a nearly
constant rate —

o

194

The Coal Question,

POPULATION OP LONDON.

Population of
London.

Numerical increase
in ten years.

Rate of increase
per cent, in ten
years.

1801

958,863

1811

1,138,815

179,952

18

1821

1,378,947

240,132

21

1831

1,654,994

276,047

20

1841

1,948,417

293,423

17

1851

2,362,236

413,819

21

1861

2,803,989

441,753

19

The appearance of convcrgcncy which our popu-
lation as a whole presents is due to emigration.
And this emigration is not a mere adventitious
and disturbing circumstance. It is an integral
part — the complement of our general develop-
ment. The more we grow at home upon our
mineral resources and manufacturing skill, the
greater demands we make fo*r food and raw ma-
terials. And it is to a great extent our demand
which raises wages in our African, Australian,
and American settlements to rates that attract
our population abroad. The gold discoveries

Growth and Migration $ of our Population. 195

have added only an accidental and temporary
attraction.

Modern Britain does not and could not stand
alone. It is united on the one hand to ancient
agricultural Britain, and on the other hand to
the modern agricultural nations of our stock,
which are growing in several continents. Of the
same language, manners, and bound together in
the same real interests of trade, Britain and her
colonial offspring must he regarded for the pre-
sent as a single whole. Our own agricultural
area being essentially limited, the offspring of
the agricultural population must find employ-
ment either in our towns or abroad. And the
growth of our towns requires a corresponding
growth of our foreign agricultural settlements.

But it must not he supposed that emigration
from England is caused by internal pressure. It
arises rather from the external allurements which
the colonial settlements offer in high wages, in-
dependence, and a certain charm of novelty and
adventure not to be overlooked. The Irish emi-
gration of 1847, indeed, was caused by internal
pressure, and is to he contrasted to that still
going on, and w r hich is due to a positive attrac-
tion exercised upon the Irish by American pros-
perity. So the gold discoveries formed attractions

o 2

196

The Goal Question.

which greatly accelerated English emigration,
and aided the development of colonies now so
important to our trade.

When once planted in almost boundless areas
of rich country, like those of North America,
Australia, and South Africa, population multi-
plies at a new rate, and manifests its geometrical
tendency, freed from the checks which Malthus
showed to be a usual restraint.

But the important result to us is the secondary
effect of foreign British population in trading
with the centres of manufacturing industry, and
stimulating the growth of our wealth and num-
bers at home. Eood and raw materials are poured
upon us from abroad, and our subsistence is
gained by returning manufactures and articles
of refinement of an equal value. Provided our
skill, our capital, but, above all, our motive
power, coal, be equal to the continuous dram,
there is no pitch of material wealth and great-
ness to which our towns might not attain, when
thus supplied from our foreign agricultural set-
tlements with the other elements of subsistence.
Eor the present, it would seem, that our home
resources are unweakened, and equal to any pro-
bable demands.

Hence it is that, in our most crowded towns,

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 197

we have, in the development of our manufacturing
and coal-consuming system, means of subsistence
which for the present remove Malthusian checks
to increase. Whether our children stay at home,
or whether they go abroad, there is the same
addition of useful labour, in fields of undimi-
nished fertility, and the same inducements to a
future continued multiplication.

The proof that this is the true state of affairs —
that our emigration is not due to poverty and
pressure at home, but rather to attractions abroad
— that our increase of population is rather under
than above the increasing means of subsistence —
is apparent in many gratifying facts concerning
our wealth, comfort, and contentment ; hut it is
most strikingly shown in our marriage-registers.
Poverty and superfluity of population would tend
to restrain marriage, and free emigration would
then, at the most, allow the continuance of the
usual rate of marriage. Malthus, Ricardo, and
other economists of the same period, were too
much inclined to regard this as the normal state
of society. Population seemed to them always
full to the brim, so that each ship-load taken to
the colonies would no more tend to empty the
country, than a bucketful of water would tend
to empty the ever-running fountain from which

198

The Coal Question.

it is drawn. They could not bring themselves to
imagine such a state of things in this country,
that one man should not stand in another’s way,
and that men, rather than subsistence, should he
lacking. But that this country does make some
approach at present to such a happy condition,
is conclusively shown by the late extraordinary
spread of marriage.

“ Marriages express the hopes and fears of the
country. They go on at all seasons, and at all
times ; hut prudence makes them fluctuate, so
that the more and the less indicate the feelings
with which the great body of the people regard
their prospects in the world.”' Every year of
depressed trade and distress leaves its mark upon
the returns of the Begistrar-General, in the shape
of diminished marriage ; and every period of
prosperity has a contrary effect. The returns, in
consequence, are in no slight degree irregular ;
but, treating the numbers of marriages in periods
of ten years, we get the results shown on the
following page. The very considerable rise in
the marriage rate is a fact of the utmost signi-
ficance, and is all the more remarkable when
compared with the low rate of increase of persons
of marriageable age, as shown on p. 203.

1 Quarterly Eeport of the Eegistrar-Geueral, 184!).

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 199

MARRIAGES IN ENGLAND AND WALES.

Number of marriages.

Numerical increase.

Rate of increase
per cent.

1801—10

832,151

1811—20

910,434

78,283

10

1821—30

1,052,095

141,661

15

1831—40

1,179,615

127,520

12

1841—50

1,354,988

175,373

15

1851—60

1,600,596

245,608

18

In stating the marriage returns for the quarter-
ending September, 1865, the Registrar-General
says : “ The rate was much above the average.
Weddings were more rife than they were in the
previous summer, or in the summer of any year
since registration began. This implies that the
great body of the people were prosperous.”

The increasing frequency of marriage presents
a strong contrast to the failing rate of increase of
the total population. It shows conclusively that
there is no such thing as an internal check to
population in England , and that Nature is taking
its appropriate means to remedy the drain from
outward attractions.

200

The Coal Question.

Wonderful confirmatory evidence is derived
from a comparison of the returns of the last two
censuses concerning the conjugal condition of the
people. It is found that the number of married
persons increased 16 per cent, between 1851 and
1861, or four per cent, more than the general
population; while the unmarried women of the
age 20 — 10 years increased but little, and the
unmarried men of the same age scarcely at all.
The numbers are as follows : —

Husbands.

Wives.

1851 ....

2,958,564 . .

. . 3,015,634

1861 ....

3,428,443 . ,

. . 3,488,952

Increase .

469,879 . .

. . 473,318

Rate of increase 16 per cent. .

. . 16 per cent.

Bachelors.

Spinsters.

1851 ....

1,198,050 . .

. . 1,168,386

1861 ....

1,201,576 . .

. . 1,229,051

Increase . .

3,526 . .

. . 60,665

Rate of increase per cent. .

. . 5 per cent.

To complete this chapter, it would be desirable
to present such accounts of the number of emi-
grants from England as would quantitatively
prove emigration to be that check to our popula-
tion which we have considered it ; but statistics
are here deficient. Accounts of the number of
emigrants since 1811 have been published; hut
unfortunately no record of the nationality of the

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 201

emigrants has been preserved. The large and
fluctuating amounts of Irish and Scotch emigra-
tion render the accounts quite inapplicable to
England ; but from the accounts, such as they
are, I form the following table of emigration to
the several parts of the world : —

EMIGRATION FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM.

United States.

North Ameri-
can Colonies.

Australasian

Colonies.

Elsewhere.

Total.

1815—20

50,359

70,438

—

2,731

123,528

1821—30

99,801

139,269

8,935

1,805

249,810

1831—40

308,247

322,485

67,882

4,536

703,150

1841—50

1,094,556

429,044

127,124

34,168

1,684,892

1851—60

1,495,243

235,285

506,802

49,875

2,287,205

Total .

3,048,206

1,196,521

710,743

93,115

5,048,585

Statistics of the immigration into the United
States 1 enable us to gain some notion of the in-
crease of English emigration apart from that of
the Irish and Scotch. In the American accounts,
indeed, the nationality of the larger part of the
immigrants is not stated; but if we divide the

1 Bromwell on Immigration, p. 176.

202

The Coal Question.

number of tbe undistinguished immigrants, in
periods of ten years, in the proportion of the
numbers of those whose birthplace is distin-
guished, we get the following probable numbers
of emigrants to the United States, whose birth-
place was in England or Wales : —

Persons.

1821—30 25,365

1831—40 55,676

1841—50 175,253

1851—55 203,508

Since the beginning of 1853 the nationality of
emigrants has been registered in our Custom-
house accounts ; and the Census Com m issioners
estimate, from the returns, that 640,316 persons,
born in England or Wales, emigrated in the ten
years between the census days of 1851 and 1861. 1

Emigrants are chiefly young men and women.
The following figures give the proportional num-
bers of immigrants at New York, and the other
ports of entry in the United States, for three
intervals of age : 2 —

Years of Age.

9—15 22

15—30 50

30—45 28 3

1 Census of 1861. Population Tables, vol. i. p. xxxii.

2 Abstract of Seventh Census of the United States, p. 14.

3 Including, in the American authority, “ the small number at older
ages.”

Growth mid Migrations of our Population. 203

In short, three out of four emigrants are marriage-
able, or recently married.

The effect upon the ages of our population is
strikingly shown in the following numbers, which
express the rates of increase per cent, between
1851 and 1861, of the numbers of persons in
England and Wales between the ages stated —

Rate of increase

Age. per cent.

0 — 20 years 12'0

20 -40 „ 9'5

40—60 „ 16'0

60—80 „ 14-0

80-100 „ 5-8

The low rate of increase for the ages 20 — 40
years is very remarkable, and these numbers
alone prove that our population, but for the
emigration going on, would be increasing at the
rate of 16 or 18 per cent, instead of 12 per cent.

It is in strict accordance with the known prin-
ciples of population, that the great gap in the
procreative powers of the population, caused by
so large a subtraction of marriageable persons,
should be filled by an unusual spread of marriage
among those who remain; and the extent to
which this is happening has already been stated.
But are there no serious reflections that should
occur to us, when made acquainted with such

l Census, 1861. Appendix to General Report, p. 111.

204

The Coal Question.

facts ? Should we forget that we are now in the
highest state of progress and prosperity that a
country can look to enjoy ? A multiplying
population, with a constant void for it to fill ; a
growing revenue, with lessened taxation; ac-
cumulating capital, with rising profits and
interest. This is a union of happy conditions
which hardly any country has before enjoyed, and
lohich no country can long expect to enjoy.

It is in such a period that a population becomes
accustomed to early marriage, the easy acquire-
ment of a livelihood, the habit of looking for a
rise in the social scale, and the enjoyment of
leisure and luxuries. Nothing can he more
desirable than such a state of things as long as it
is possible. It is the very happiness of civiliza-
tion. But nothing is more grievous than the
forcible change of such habits, and the disappoint-
ment of the hopes they inspire.

Now population, when it grows, moves with a
certain uniform impetus, like a body in motion ;
and uniform progress of population, as I have
fully explained before, is multiplication in a uni-
form ratio. But long-continued progress in such
a manner is altogether impossible — it must out-
strip all physical conditions and hounds ; and the
longer it continues, the more severely must the

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 205

ultimate check he felt. I do not hesitate to say,
therefore, that the rapid growth of our great
towns, gratifying as it is in the present, is a
matter of very serious concern as regards the
future. I do not say that the failure of our coal-
mines will be the only possible check. Changes
here, or in other parts of the world, may, even
before the failure of our mines, reduce us to a
stationary condition, and bring upon us at an
earlier period the sufferings and dangers incident
to our position. But such a grievous change, if
it does not come before, must come when our
mines have reached a certain depth.

206

The Coal Question.

CHAPTER XI.

or THE CHANGE AND PROGRESS OP OUR INDUSTRY.

Our rapid but one-sided progress may be shown
not only in its effects upon the numbers of the
population, but also in the kind and extent of
our industry.

In the second half of last century our popula-
tion, previously stationary, began to grow at a
growing rate. When we consider that at this
period the engine was coming into use, that
Arkwright’s cotton machinery was invented, that
the smelting of iron with coal was immensely
increasing the abundance of the valuable metal,
we cannot hesitate to connect these events as
cause and effect. It was a period of commercial
revolution. It was then we began that develop-
ment of our inventions and our coal resources
which is still going on. It was from 1770 to
1780, as Briavoinne thinks, that the commercial
revolution took a determined character. 1

1 M. N. Briavoinne, Do l’lndustrie en Belgique. Bruxelles, 183!),
p. 197.

Change and Progress of our Industry. 207

The history of British industry and trade may
be divided into two periods, the first reaching
backward from about the middle of last century
to the earliest times, and the latter reaching
forward to the present and the future. These
two periods are contrary in character. In the
earlier period Britain was a rude, half-cultivated
country, abounding in corn, and wool, and meat,
and timber, and exporting the rough but valu-
able materials of manufacture. Our people,
though with no small share of poetic and philo-
sophic genius, were unskilful and unhandy ;
better in the arts of war than those of peace ;
on the whole learners, rather than teachers.

But as the second period grew upon us many
things changed. Instead of learners we became
teachers ; instead of exporters of raw materials
we became importers ; instead of importers of
manufactured articles we became exporters.
What we had exported we began by degrees to
import ; and what we had imported we began
to export.

It is interesting to observe the reversal which
then occurred in several of our ancient trades.
Wool had been for a long time esteemed the
staple produce of the country. We raised the
raw material in plenty, hut were so unskilful

208

The Goal Question.

in its manufacture, that all the Acts of Parlia-
ment that could he devised, all the arts and
watchfulness of the revenue officer, could not
prevent it being “ run ” for the manufacturers
of Prance and Holland. No efforts of the legis-
lature could enable us to compete with foreigners,
and mistaken restrictions only contributed to keep
the whole country stationary. But when once
our manufacturing ingenuity took its natural
rise, no more was heard of the “running of
wool,” and we have since become by far the first
and largest woollen manufacturers, consuming
not only our own raw wool, but as much as we can
buy in Australia, Germany, Spain, and America.

Again, we had during the early part of the
last century imported quantities of fine cotton
goods from India, and great was the indignation
of Gee and other commercial writers at this
“ finger labour ” being allowed to interfere with
our home industry. No exclusion of such Indian
cottons could have promoted the invention of
cotton-spinning machinery, which is rather due
to the general advance of our skill in mechanical
construction. But it is curious to reflect upon
the different state of things now, and the enor-
mous quantities of cotton we not only draw from
India, but return in a manufactured state.

Change and Progress of our Industry. 209

Com had been, next to wool the most esteemed
produce of the kingdom. When our population
was not one-third of its present amount we were
able to raise enough for our own use, with a
margin over in plentiful years. This margin
the Dutch and Drench merchants readily pm-
chased from us and stored up, often selling it
back to us again in periods of dearth. But as
corn is not a material of manufacture, its export
was regarded very favourably as bringing trea-
sure into the country, and the whole kingdom
looked upon the system of bounties and pro-
tective duties, established in 1670, as a piece of
skilful political economy. But no sooner had
our population about 1761 or 1771 begun to
increase than our imports of wheat exceeded our
exports, and the inward movement of corn was
accelerated by the reduction of the protective
duties to a nominal amount. Our dependence
on foreign corn, however, increased so rapidly,
and was so odious to the general feelings of the
country, that a restrictive Act was readily passed
in 1791. This was the first of the series of Corn
Laws which twenty years ago led to so severe
a struggle. The effect of restriction is seen in
the stationary amount of imports between 1791
and 1830, the increased demands of the popu-

210

The Goal Question.

lation being met by the enclosure of land, ai d
tbe improvement of tillage. But the necessary
result of pushing a very limited country like
England to its greatest capabilities is a compa-
rative rise of tbe price of food, compared with
other articles, and compared with the food of
other countries. Thus naturally arose the great
Corn Law Question. These facts are apparent
in the following table of the average exports
and imports of wheat and wheat-meal, during
periods of ten years, in the last and present
centuries.

1701—10 .

Average Annual
Exports of Wheat.
Quarters.

. . . 107,116 . .

Average Annual
Imports of When
Quarters.

. . 217

.1711—20

. . . 112,020 . .

. . 4

1721—30 .

. . . 115,779 . .

. . 11,513

1731—40 .

. . . 290,512 . .

. . 1,307

1741—50 .

. . . 378,452 . .

. . 110

1751—60

. . . 272,883 . .

. . 16,229

1761—70 .

. . . 203,365 . .

. . 96,728

1771—80 .

. . . 101,739 . .

. . 130,423 •

1781—90 .

. . . 110,197 . .

. . 174,728

1791—1800 .

. . . 82,178 . .

. . 568,896

1801—10 .

. . . 37,738 . .

. . 590,087

1811—20 .

. . . 40,087 . .

. . 540,111

1821—30 .

. . . 79,510 . .

. . 560,314

1831—40 .

. . . 157,852 . .

. . 1,077,370

1841—50 .

. . . 71,989! . .

. . 2,892,094

1851—60 .

... —

. . 5,031,266

186J

. . . — . .

. . 8,670,797 '

Average of 1841 — 9.

Change and Progress of our Industry. 211

The exports, it is seen, attained their highest
amount about the middle of last century, but
were never large. Our imports are now in-
creasing beyond all bounds, and even prices
below 40s. per quarter do not stop the influx.
With the above we may contrast the average
annual quantities of wheat sold in the several
market towns of England and Wales, in the
undermentioned periods : —

Quarters of Wheat.

1815—20 1,119.959

1821—30 2, 271, 80S

1831—40 3,675,134

1841— 50 4,012,652

1842— 51 5,114,176

1852—61 . . . 4,849,130

The returns for the last two periods are given
separately because they refer to a larger number
of market towns than the previous returns. As
the quantities sold do not include by any means
the whole of wliat is grown or used, we cannot
draw any accurate conclusions as to the amount
of our subsistence; but it clearly appears that
our production of wheat has passed its highest
point and is declining.

Such an extraordinary change in the source of
subsistence of the country cannot but be accom-
panied by many secondary changes. Human

212

The Coal Question.

requirements are various, and arranged in a
scale of subordination. A plentiful supply of
corn, creating population, creates also a demand
for animal food, for dairy produce, for vegetables
and fruit, the home production of which is natu-
rally protected by the cost of carriage. Few or
no farmers or landowners, then, who would
promptly submit to the necessary changes of
culture, could suffer any loss from the influx
of foreign corn. This view was urged, in 1845,
previous to the repeal of the Corn Laws, in Mr.
T. C. Banfield’s very excellent Lectures on the
Organization of Labour : “ The farmer and the
landlord,” he said, 1 “are the parties most in-
terested in the rejection of our present Corn
Laws, which make wheat a profitable crop at
the expense of every other. They ought to be
clamorous for their repeal ; for no one can deny
that cheapness of corn will increase the demand
for every other article of agricultural produce.”
Similar views had been previously stated in a
pamphlet by my father on the subject of the
Corn Laws. 2 And no anticipations could have
heen more thoroughly fulfilled.

1 Pago 53.

2 The Prosperity of the Landholders not dependent on the Corn
Laws. By Thomas Jevons, 1H40, pp. 7 — 11.

Change and Progress of our Industry. 213

In spite of the vast importations, and the very-
low price to which corn has fallen both in 1850-1
and 1862-5, we have few complaints of the
farmers’ or the landlords’ ruin. Agriculturists
are either prosperous, or patient to an extent not
to he looked for in human nature. But the fact
is, that the substitution of new crops and kinds
of culture has been going on very extensively,
rendering the price of corn no longer the measure
of the farmer’s profit. An excellent example of
the changes which are more or less going on
throughout the rural parts of Great Britain, is
furnished by certain statistics of the parish of
Bellingham, in Northumberland, communicated
by the Bev. W. H. Charlton to the British
Association, at Newcastle, in 1863. Comparing
the condition of the parish in 1838 and in 1863,
it is shown that the acres of land under the
plough had been nearly halved, being reduced

from 1,582 acres to 800 acres.

The area of wheat, indeed, had been reduced to
one-fifth,

from 200 acres to 40 acres ;
while that of oats was less decreased,
from 400 acres to 300 acres.

214

The Coal Question.

The number of grazing-cattle had, on the other
hand, been multiplied thirteenfold,

from 50 head to 660 head ;
and the sheep had increased very greatly,
from 5,102 head to 9,910 head.

The milch cows, however, had decreased
from 460 cows to 220 cows ;
and the quantity of cheese produced,

from 1,120 cheeses to 60 cheeses.

The horses employed in farm-work had decreased
nearly to one-half,

from 119 horses to 66 horses ;

but the increase in horses otherwise employed
nearly made up the difference, being
from 17 horses to 56 horses.

Of course such changes must he exjjected to
continue with the growth of our population
and consumption, until only the richest of our
valley lands hear wheat, while the rest of the
kingdom is given up to grazing, or to sheep-
walks, dairy-farms, and market-gardens. Under
our present system of free-trade, the farmer will
find his best advantage, not in clinging to old
traditions and customs, hut in trying to appre-
hend the tendencies of the time, and select those

Change and Progress of our Industry. 215

new kinds of culture which will give the best
money return.

One extraordinary result of the current changes
in our old industry was disclosed hy the census
of 1861. It is a positive decrease of our agricul-
tural population !

PERSONS EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE.

1S51. 1S61.

2,011,447. 1,924,110.

The decrease is chiefly in the number of indoor
farm-servants, which was 287,272 in 1851, and
only 201,962 in 1861. On the other hand,
agricultural implement proprietors increased
fully fourfold in numbers, from 55 in 1851 to
236 in 1861 ; while agricultural engine and
machine workers were for the first time stated in
the census of 1861 as 1,205 in number. The
decrease of agricultural population is partly due
to the less labour required in grazing than hr
tillage. But the employment of horse, water, or
steam power in many field operations, as well as
in thrashing, chopping, churning, &c. has greatly
contributed to the same result. The economy of
labour in agriculture affords in this country

i See the able investigation by Frederick Purdv, Esq. of the
Statistical Department of the Poor Law Board, On the Decrease of
the Agricultural Population, 1851 — 61 ; British Association, 1863,
p. 157. Journal of the Statistical Society, September, 1864, p. 3S8.

216

The Coal Question.

little or no compensation to the labourer in the
extension of employment, because the area of
land is limited and already fully occupied.
Labour saved is rendered superfluous. It is
this that keeps agricultural wages so low ; and
as steam-power is more and more used upon a
farm, the number of labourers will continue to
decrease. The only relief for the consequent
poverty . of the labourer, beyond a poor-house
allowance, is migration into a manufacturing
town or a prosperous colony. In either case the
emigrant contributes directly or indirectly to
develop our new system of industry, and to
render more complete the overbalancing of our
ancient agricultural system. Such facts, having
been disclosed by the census, are patent to all ;
hut we cannot too often have brought to our
notice the profound changes they indicate in our
social and industrial condition.

When we turn from agriculture to our me-
chanical and newer arts, the contrast is indeed
strong, both as regards the numbers employed
and the amounts of their products. But the
subject is a trite one; every newspaper, hook,
and parliamentary return is full of it : factories
and works, crowded docks and laden waggons arc
the material proofs of our progress.

Change and Progress of our Industry. 217

I shall, therefore, give my attention to the
rate of our progress, and show that our trade
and manufactures are being developed icithout
apparent bounds in a geometric , not an arithmetic
series — by multiplication, not by mere addition —
and by multiplication always in a high and often
a continuously rising ratio.

Next after coal, the production of which we
shall consider in the next chapter, iron is the
material basis of our power. It is the bone and
sinews of our labouring system. Political writers
have correctly treated the invention of the coal
blast-furnace as that which has most contributed
to our material wealth. "Without it the engine,
the spinning-jenny, the power-loom, the gas
and water-pipe, the iron vessel, the bridge, the
railway — in fact, each one of our most important
works — would be impracticable from the want
and cost of material. The production of iron,
the material of all our machinery, is the best
measure of our wealth and power ; and the fol-
lowing statement shows that, from the time
when the charcoal bloomary and forge gave
place to the coke blast-furnace, the production of
iron in England has advanced at a rate alike
extraordinary in rapidity and constancy : —

218

The Coal Question

PRODUCTION OF PIG IRON.

Pig iron produced.
Tons.

Average increase
in ten years.
Tons.

Average annual
rate of increase
per cent.

Rate as for ten
years.

1740

17,350

1788

68,300

10,620

3

33

1796

125,079

70,980

8

113

1806

258,206

133,130

7

107

1826

581,000

169,890

4

54

1839

1,248,781

477,000

6

73

1847

1,999,608

938,530

6

80

1854

3,069,83s 1

1,528,900

6

85

1864

4,767,951 1

1,698,113

5

55

It is evident that an arithmetical law of increase
is totally inapplicable to the above numbers, since
the yearly addition increases continuously from
little more than 1,000 tons to 170,000 tons, the
recent yearly addition. The ratio of increase, on
the contrary, has only varied from 3 to 8 per
cent, per annum. In the last period, indeed,
1854 — 64, we observe a fall in the rate, probably
temporary, and due to the partial loss of the

1 Mineral Statistics. The amounts for previous years are estimates
collected from several well-known works,

Change and Progress of our Industry. 219

American trade, in consequence of the enact-
ment of the Morrill tariff.

The same temporary check to the iron trade is
more apparent in the following account : —

EXPORT OF PIG IRON.

Year.

Tons of pig iron
exported.

Increase.

Rate per cent of
increase as for
ten years.

1801

1,583

1812

4,066

2,483

136

1821

4,484

418

12

1831

12,444

7,960

177

1841

85,866

73,422

590

1851

201,264

115, 39S

134

1861

387,546

1S6,282

93

Our export iron trade commenced hut little
previous to the beginning of this century, so that
a generation hardly yet passed away saw its rise.
Within a period of sixty years the trade, as
regards crude iron only, has been multiplied
215-fold. It is in vain to prophesy how much it
may yet in future years be further multiplied.
Prodigious resources are now being applied to

220

The Coal Question.

the extension of the iron manufacture, and the
present activity of the trade leads us to suppose
that any recent dulness will be amply com-
pensated. A single company, that of the Ehhw
Vale Iron Works, managed hy Mr. Abraham
Darby, a descendant of the founder of our iron
manufacture, holds 16,306 acres of land, employs
more than 15,000 labourers, representing a popu-
lation of 50,000 persons, produces 130,000 tons
of pig iron annually, with a capability of pro-
ducing 180,000 tons , or ten times as much as the
whole produce of the country 120 years ago.
But we must almost tremble when we hear that
this single company raises 850,000 tons of coal
annually, and with a comparatively small outlay
are prepared to increase the yield to a million
and a half of tons ! Expanding as it does, the
iron manufacture must soon burn out the vitals
of the country, and it is possible that there are
those now living who will see the end of the
export of crude iron; so rapid is the develop-
ment of the trade that its rise and decline may
perhaps be compassed by two lifetimes.

The consumption of timber, as Mr. Porter
remarked, 1 exhibits forcibly the comparative pro-

Progress of the Nation, 1847, p. 587.

Change and Progress of our Industry. 221

gress of industry. The following table exhibits
the quantities of timber, “ eight inches square
and upwards,” of colonial and foreign growth,
consumed in the United Kingdom in the years
1801 to 1841, and the total cubic contents of
all timber imported in the years 1843, 1851, and
1861

Tear. Quantity of Timber. Bate of increase per

Loads. cent, in ten years.

1801 161,869

1811 279,048 72

1821 416,765 49

1821 546,078 31

1831 745,158 36

Year. Total Imports. Eate of Increase per cent.

Loads. as for ten years.

1843 1,317,645

1851 2,111,777 80

1861 3,061,138 45

The extraordinary increase between 1843 and
1851 is due to the partial repeal of the timber
duties in 1847 and 1848. The more recent rate
of forty-five per cent, is but little below the
average rate (fifty per cent.) obtaining since the
beginning of the century.

The amount of cotton consumed is a measure
of one of the largest branches of our manufac-
turing system. Excluding from view the recent
extraordinary disturbance in that trade, the fol-
lowing numbers exhibit its rate of progress : —

222

The Coal Question.

IMPORTS OP COTTON.

Year.

Quantity of Cot-
ton imported.

Increase in ten
years.

Rate of increase
per cent, as for
ten years.

Pounds.

Pounds.

1785

17,992,882

1790

31,447,605

26,909,446

206

1801

54,203,433

20,687,116

64

1811

90,309,668

36,106,235

67

1821

137,401,549

47,091,881

52

1831

273,249,653

135,848,104

99

1841

437,093,631

163,843,978

60

1851

757,379,749

320,276,118

73

1860

1,390,938,752

633,559,003

96

No single branch of production can give an
adequate measure of the general growth, because
our manufactures not only expand in the case of
each article, but also branch out into new kinds
of work ever becoming more diverse and ela-
borate. Let us consider the attempts that have
been made to estimate the general aggregate of
our exchanges.

Lor a century and a half the amounts of our
imports and exports were expressed according to
a tariff of invariable prices fixed in 1694. The

Change and Progress of our Industry. 223

official values thus obtained have no claim what-
ever to he considered the real values of the com-
modities imported or exported, and only furnish
a convenient criterion of the increase and decrease
of the aggregate quantity of goods. The official
account of the value of imports from the begin-
ning of last century, is as follows : 1 —

TOTAL VALUE OF IMPORTS.

Year.

Average official value
of imports.

Increase.

Rate of increase
per cent, in ten
years.

£

£

1701—10

4,267,464

1711—20

5,318,450

1,050,986

25

1721—30

6,621,725

1,303,275

25

1731—40

6,992,010

370,285

6

1741—50

6,784,409 -

—207,601 2 3

— 3 2

1751- 60

7,826,441

1,042,032

15

1761—70

10,025,235

2,198,794

28

1771—80

10,6S4,426

659,191

7

17S1— 90

13,543,418

2,858,992

27

1791—1800

20,660,760

7,117,342

53

1801—10 '

28,809,778 3

8,149,018

39

1811—20

30,864,670

2,054,892

7

1821- 30

39,661,123

8,796,453

29

1831—40

53,487,465

13,826,342

35

1841—50

79.192, S06

25,705,341

48

18ol — oo

116,931,262

37,738,45S

63 4

1 First Report of the Commissioners of Customs, 1857, p. 108. See
the diagram fronting the title-page, in which the divergent character of
our progress is shown to the eye by curves representing the numbers
of the population, the official value of our imports, and the vend of

coal from Newcastle. 2 Decrease.

3 M'Culloch’s Account of the British Empire ; Barton's Tables,

p. 30. 4 Rate as for ten years.

224

The Coal Question.

Low rates of progress varied by retrogression
prevailed throughout the greater part of last
century. Before its termination occurred a great
burst of trade, only brought temporarily to a
stand by the great Continental wars. Starting
from the Peace we observe a continuous accelera-
tion in the rate of multiplication of our aggregate
imports, the most recent rate being the highest
known.

The accounts of the official values extend only
to the year 1855, the system of official values
being then abandoned in favour of real values.
These values are computed in the Statistical
Department of the Board of Trade from the
actual prices of the commodities as given in
mercantile price lists, or furnished by the prin-
cipal mercantile firms. But the increase of our
imports from 1854 to 1863, as measured by their
real ascertained values, is even more surprising.

Bate per cent, of

Tear. Beal value of imports. Increase. increase as for

£ £ tell years.

1854 . . 152 , 389,853 . .

1863 . . 248 , 980,942 . . 96 , 591,089 .... 73

Ve have accounts of the declared real value
of exports from about the commencement of this
century.

Change mid Progress of our Industry. 225

TOTAL VALUE OF EXPORTS.

Year.

Average annual de-
clared value of
exports.

Increase in ten years.

Hate of increase
per cent, in ten
years.

1801—10

£

40 , 737,970

£

1811—20

41 , 484,461

746,491

2

1821—30

36 , 600,536

— 4 , 883 , 925 1

— 12 1

1831—40

45 , 144,407

8 , 543,871

23

1841—50

57 , 381,293

12 , 236,886

27

1851—60

106 , 513,673

49 , 132,380

■

86

Since 1860 the amount of our exports has been
greatly influenced by the revolution in the Cotton
trade, but there has been a great recent expansion
as seen below : —

Total Exports.

Year. Millions Sterling.

1 860 £ 135 , 800,000

1861 125 , 100,000

1862 123 , 900,000

1863 146 , 600,000

1864 160 , 400,000

1865 165 , 800,000

The stationary or retrograde condition of our
exports as expressed by the real value, in the
earlier part of this century, has been attributed
to the restrictive influence of the Corn Laws.
But the official values and other statements of

1 Decrease.

Q

226

The Goal Question.

quantities of commodities examined in previous
pages negative this notion. It was due rather
to the great fall of prices which was proceeding
from about the year 1810 until about 1851.
Allowing for the change of prices it may be said,
I believe, that the progress of our trade was slow
during the great wars, rapid and constant from
the Peace to the accomplishment of Pree Trade,
and greatly accelerated since that event.

The rise of our commerce is strikingly seen in
the continuous growth of the port of Liverpool,
which soon will be the greatest of all emporiums
of trade. The dock accounts extend over a cen-
tury, giving the number and since 1800 the ton-
nage of vessels charged with dock-dues.

PORT OF LIVERPOOL.

Year.

Number of
ships.

Tonnage of
ships.

Rate of increase
per cent, in
ten years.

1761

1,319

1771

2,087

58 of ships.

1781

2,512

20 „

1791

4,045

61 „

1801

5,060

459,719

25 „

1811

5,616

611,190

33 of tonnnge.

1821

7,810

839,848

37 „

1831

12,537

1,592,436

89 „

1841

16,108

2,425,461

3,737,666

52 „

1851

21,071

54 „

1861

21,095

4,977,272

33 „

Change and Progress of our Industry. 227

The above numbers are not so regular as those
we might get by taking decennial averages, and
yet the rate of multiplication of Liverpool as a
port has only varied in a century from twenty
to eighty-nine per cent.

Accounts of the shipping of the whole king-
dom are available from the beginning of the
century. Prom them we get the following ex-
traordinary results : —

TONNAGE OF BRITISH PORTS.

Tear

Average annual ton-
nage of ships entering
and clearing.

Increase.

Rate per cent, of
increase in ten
years.

1801—10

Tuns.

3,467,157

Tons.

1811—20

4,203,613

736,446

21

1821—30

5,059,522

855,919

20

1831—40

7,175,081

2,115,559

42

1841—50

11,704,796

4,529,715

63

1851—60

20,233,049

8,528,253

73

Multiplication at a growing rate ! So far is
our shipping industry from increasing in an
arithmetical series only, that even a geometrical
series does not adequately express its rapid ex-
pansion. The very rate of multiplication pro-
gresses.

Q 2

228

The Coal Question.

But it is the expansion of our ocean steam
marine which most fitly represents our me-
chanical resources, our commercial requirements,
and our maritime supremacy. The following are
the amounts of tonnage of steam vessels belong-
ing to the United Kingdom, beginning with the
decennial period following the introduction of
steamboats in 1814 : —

BRITISH STEAM VESSELS.

Tear.

Tonnage.

Increase of
tonnage.

Rale of increase
per cent, in ten
years.

1821

10,534

1831

37,445

26,911

256

1841

95,687

58,242

156

1851

186,687

91,000

95

1861

506,308

319,621

171

If we pass over the early period when steam-
vessels were quite a novelty, we find that their
increase, always extraordinary, has been more
rapid even proportionally speaking in the last
ten years than in twenty previous years. And
the extreme success and prosperity of the iron

Change and Progress of our Industry. 229

ship-building trade at the present time is the
sure indication of the future extension of steam
navigation.

When we consider that the system of ocean
steam communication is almost wholly in our
hands and supported upon our coal, our pride at
its possession must be mingled with anxiety at
the enormous drain it directly and indirectly
creates upon our coal-mines.

230

The Coal Question.

CHAPTER XII.

OF OUR CONSUMPTION OP COAL.

In the last three chapters I have tried to make
apparent, both from principle and fact, that a
nation tends to develop itself by multiplication
rather than addition — in a geometrical rather
than an arithmetical series. And though such
continuous multiplication is seldom long pos-
sible, owing to the material limits of subsistence,
I have given sufficient numbers to prove that up
to the present time our growth is unchecked by
any such limits, and is proceeding at uniform or
rising rates of multiplication.

Now while the iron, cotton, mercantile, and
other chief branches of our industry thus pro-
gress, it is obvious that our consumption of coal
must similarly progress in a geometrical series.
This, however, is matter of inference only be-
cause until lately the total quantities of coal
consumed were quite unknown.

Of our Consumption of Coal. 231

We can trace the progress of the consumption
of coal in previous centuries with some accuracy
by means of the accounts of the Newcastle and
London Coal Trade, which used to be, far more
even than it now is, the largest branch of the
trade. The total quantities of coal shipped
from Newcastle and the neighbouring ports were
as follows —

VEND OF COAL FROM NEWCASTLE.

Year.

Vend from the
Newcastle Coal-
field,

Increase as for fifty
years.

Hate of increase
per cent as for
fifty years.

Tons.

Tons.

1609

251,764

1660

537,000

279,643

110

1700

650,000

141,250

27

1750

1,193,467

543,467

84

1800

2,520,075

1,326,608

111

1864

18,349,867 1 2

12,367,025

372

The progressive consumption of London for two
centuries, is seen in the following figures : —

1 T. J. Taylor, Archaeology of the Coal Trade, pp. 177 and 204, in
Memoirs of the British Archaeological Association, 1S58. See the
diagram fronting the title-page.

5 Including 7,562,063 tons of railway borne coal.

232

The Coal Question.

COAL IMPORTED INTO LONDON.

Tear.

Total quantity of
coal imported into
London.

Increase in fifty years*
or as for fifty years.

Rate per cent, of
increase

as for fifty years.

Tons.

Tons.

1650

216,000

1700

428,100

212,100

98

1750

688,700

260,600

61

1800

1,099,000

410,300

60

1850

3,638,883

2,539,883

231

1865

5,909,940

7,570,190

404

We see that it is almost impossible to compare
this and previous centuries, and that the rate of
multiplication is in recent years many times as
great as during preceding centuries, and is rapidly
advancing up to the latest returns. The simple
numerical increase is now almost indefinitely
greater than it used to be.

As to the total quantity of coal consumed in
the whole kingdom the most erroneous notions
were entertained even twelve years ago. Writers
on Statistics and the Coal Trade made what they
called Estimates, by adding together the Sea-
borne, and a few other known quantities of coal,

Of our Consumption of Coal.

233

and then making a liberal allowance ad libitum
for the rest.

The variations in the estimates made by dif-
ferent authors may be judged from the following
statement —

Tons.

R. C. Taylor, Statistics of Coal, 1848 .... 31,500,000

J. R. MacCulloch, 1854» 38,400,000

Braithwaite Poole, Statistics of British Com-
merce, 1852 34,000,000

T. Y. Hall, “ A Treatise on the Extent and pro-
bable Duration of the Northern Coal-field,

1854” 56,550,000

The same, quoting “ a particularly careful writer

on the subject of the Coal Trade” . . . 52,000,000

Joseph Dickinson, Inspector of Coal Mines, in

his Report, 1853 54,000,000

In 1854 was begun the system of Mining
Records 1 2 3 and Statistical Inquiry, recommended
by Mr. Sopwith with reference to our present
subject, and carried into practice by Mr. Robert
Hunt, with the assistance of the Government
Inspectors of Coal Mines, and the voluntary
co-operation of the Carrying and Mining Com-
panies. The following are the amounts of coal

1 Mineral Statistics for 1855. Introd. p. vi.

2 Statistical Account, vol. i. p. 599. This later estimate is sub-
stituted for the one given in the Mineral Statistics.

3 Proposed long ago by Mr. Chapman. See Holmes, Treatise on
the Coal Mines of Durham and Northumberland. London, 1816.

p. 218.

234 The Coal Question.

ascertained to have been raised from our coal-

mines : —

Year.

1854 .

1855 .

1856 .

1857 .

1858 .

1859 .

1860 .
1861 .
1862 .
1863 .

Tons.

. . 64,661,401 1

. . 61,453,079

. . 66,645,450

. . 65,394,707

. . 65,008,649

. . 71,979,765

. . 80,042,698

. . 83,635,214

. . 81,638,338

. . 86,292,215

Total 726,751,516

Since the first edition of this work was pub-
lished it has been found that the returns from
South Staffordshire were under-estimated, owing
to a misapprehension of the size of the Stafford-
shire ton and boat-load.

The correct amounts of coal produced during
the last four years are as follows : —

Year. Tons.

1861 85,635,214

1862 83,638,338

1863 88,292,515

1864 92,787,873

By adopting the new numbers I might slightly
strengthen my conclusions, but I do not think it
worth while to make the necessary alterations.
The quantity of small coals consumed upon

1 Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom, 1864, p. 01.

Of our Consumption of Coal. 235

the colliery waste-heaps is not included in the
above, and is unknown. Mr. Atkinson, inspector
of the coal-mines of Durham, south of the Wear,
estimated the waste in his district in 1860 at
2,404,215 tons ; but Mr. Dunn, inspector for
Cumberland, Northumberland, and the rest of
Durham, considered the waste in his district to
be only 834,117 tons. 1 The discrepancy of these
estimates is so great and obvious that there ap-
peared in the Mineral Statistics for 1862 2 the
following note : — “ The amount of coals burnt
or wasted at pits has been so differently repre-
sented, and appears such an uncertain although
very large quantity, that it is for the present
omitted.” We may conjecture it to be at least
five millions of tons in the whole. But the
uncertainty does not affect our subject much,
because before long this deplorable waste of coal
must come to a natural end.

We see that without considering the waste the
lowest of the amounts of coal consumed (1854 —
1863) exceeds, by eight millions of tons, the
largest previous estimate of our consumption,
that of Mr. T. Y. Hall uniting in 1854 ; while the
estimates of Poole, MacCulloch, and B. C. Taylor

1 Mineral Statistics for 1860, p, 90.

; P. OS.

236

The Coal Question.

are hardly more than half the true amount.
With such facts before us we cannot place much
credit in previous estimates, hut I give such as
I have met with.

Y ear. Tons.

1819. R. 0. Taylor, Statistics of Coal 13,000,000

1829. Estimate 15,580,000

1833. J. Marshall, Digest of Pari. Accounts, p. 237 . . 17,000,000
1840. J. R. MacCulloch, Dictionary of Commerce . . 30,000,000
1845. Ditto Ditto . . . 34,600,000

I much prefer to reject all such estimates, and
argue only upon the undoubted returns of the
Mining Record Office, given on p. 234. We of
course regard not the average annual arithmetic
increase of coal consumption between 1854 and
1863, which is 2,403,424 tons ; but the average
ratio or rate per cent . of increase, which is found
by logarithmic calculation to be 3 - 26 per cent.
That is to say, the consumption of each year,
one with another, exceeded that of the previous
year as 103 - 26 exceeds 100.

We cannot help perceiving, however, that the
consumption of coal is variable, and dependent
upon the fluctuating activity of trade. The year
1854 presents a maximum ; for the consumption
falls off next year from 64^ millions to 611,, and
suffers no great increase until 1859. There is
then a very rapid rise up to a second maximum

237

Of our Consumption of Coal.

in 1861. We are uncertain when the consump-
tion will again reach a maximum, and under
these circumstances it is better to compare the
consumption of the tioo yearns of maxima , 1854
and 1861, assuming that they are years of a
certain correspondent activity. The average rate
of increase in the interval is 3 7 per cent., and
the comparison of the years 1854 and 1864 would
give almost exactly the same result ; but in our
succeeding calculations I will assume that the
average annual rate of growth of our coal con-
sumption is 3^ per cent. — or the ratio of growth is
that of 103'5 to 100.

This is equivalent to a growth in ten years of
41 per cent, or in fifty years of 458 per cent,, or
5^. fold.

Such are the critical numbers of our inquiry.

If we assume the consumption of coal to have
grown to its present (1863) amount, at the
uniform rate of 34 per cent., and calculate its
former probable amounts backwards, we find no
accordance with former estimates of the error of
which we were already well assured (p. 236).

Year.

Estimated Amount.

Calculated Amount

1819 . .

. . 13,000,000 . .

. 18,993,000

1829 . .

. . 15,5SO.OOO . .

. 26,792,000

1833 , .

. . 17,000,000 . .

. 30,744,000

1840 . .

. . 30,000,000- . .

. 39,115,000

1845 . .

. . 34,600,000 . .

. 46,456,000

238

The Coal Question.

But it is worthy of notice that Mr. Hull, when
briefly reviewing the consumption of coal, con-
jectured the true amount probably not to exceed
ten million tons at the beginning of the century,
and to be about 36 million tons in 1840. 1 Now
these estimates agree well with the amounts we
should arrive at from our assumed rate of growth.

Year - Hull’s Conjecture. Calculated Amount.

1801 .... 10,000,000 .... 10,225,000

.1840 . . . . .36,000,000 .... 39,115,000

The following are the calculated probable
amounts of coal used at decennial intervals as
far back as it is safe to assume that the present
high rate of progress existed ; that is, to the time
of the introduction of Watt’s engine, the pit-
coal iron furnace, and the cotton factory : —

Probable Consumption.

Year. Tons.

1781 5,139,000

1791 7,249,000

1801 10,225,000

1811 14,424,000

1821 20,346,000

1831 28,700,000

1841 40,484,000

1851 57,107,000

If we take the consumption of 1852 and 1853
as the same as that of 1851, and the consumption
in each period of ten years as uniformly the same

1 The Coni Fields of Great Britain, 2d Ed. pp. 29, 236.

Of our Consumption of Coal. 239

as that of the first year, we easily get the fol-
lowing : —

Tons of Coal.

Probable consumption, 1781 — 1853 . .- . 1,436,991,000

Actual consumption, 1854 — 1863 .... 726,751,516

Total consumption, 1781 — 1863 . . 2,163,742,516

We cannot but he struck by the fact that the
consumption of the last ten years is half as great
as that of the previous seventy-two years! But
we gain little notion from the above of the total
quantity of coal already burnt or wasted in these
islands. An incalculable waste of coal has been
going on throughout the period reviewed, both
as regards the slack burnt at the pit mouth, and
the many times greater quantity of small or large
coal left behind in the pit by prodigal modes of
mining, which coal cannot for the most part be
recovered. And then previous to 1781 there had
been a very considerable and more stationary
consumption of coal, especially in Northum-
berland, Staffordshire, and at Whitehaven, during
four or five centuries.

But let us now approach the main point of onr
inquiry, and follow the future probable con-
sumption of coal. Assuming the present rate of
growth, 31 per cent, per annum, to hold, it is
easy to calculate the amounts of coal to be con-

240

The Coal Question.

sumed in tlxe undermentioned years, starting
from the actual consumption of 1861 : 1 —

Consumption at the assumed
In the year rate of increase.

1861

. . . ■ 83'6 millions of tons.

1871

. . . 117-9

„

yy

1881

. . 166-3

>>

yy

1891

. . . 234-7

,,

1901

. . . 331-0

yi

1911

. . . 466-9

„

1921

. . . 658-6

yy

1931

. . . 929-0

yy

1941

. . . 1,310-5

„

yy

1951

. . . 1,848-6

)?

yy

1961

. . . 2,607-5

yy

The total aggregate consumption of the period of
110 years, 1861 — 1970, would be 102,704,000,000
tons. 2 Or, if it be objected that 1861 was a year
of maximum consumption, we may reduce the
above sum in the proportion of 83 • 6 millions to
80 millions, the average consumption of the five
years 1859 — 63. We thus get 98,281,000,000
tons ; or, in round numbers, we may say, always

1 These numbers are represented to the eye in the diagram fronting
the title-page.

3 The sum of the geometrical series, in millions of tons,

83'6 | 1 + 1'035 + (1-035) 2 + + (l-035) 3 °» j

or, which is exactly the same, the value of the definite integral

f 110 82-17 (l-035)‘dt
J o

in which the constant 82-17 has been determined so that
f 1 82-17 (1-035)' cU = 83-6.

Of our Consumption of Coal.

241

hypothetically , — If our consumption of coal con-
tinue to multiply for 110 years at the same rate
as hitherto, the total amount of coal consumed in
the interval will he one hundred thousand millions
of tons.

"VVe now turn to compare this imaginary con-
sumption of coal with Mr. Hull’s estimate of the
available coal in Britain, viz. eighty-three thousand
millions of tons within a depth of 4,000 feet . 1

Even though Mr. Hull’s estimate be greatly
under the true amount, we cannot but allow that
—Rather more than a century of our present pro-
gress would exhaust our mines to the depth of
4,000 feet, or 1,500 feet deeper than our present
deepest mine.

I have given reasons for believing that if all

our coal w ere brought from an average depth of
some 2,000 feet, 2 our manufacturers would have

to contend with a doubled pri ce of fuel If the
average depth were increased to 4,000 feet, a

further great but unknowui rise in the cost of

fuel must be the consequence.

But I am far from asserting, from these figures,
that our coal-fields will be wrought to a depth of
4,000 feet in little more than a century.

1 See pp. 23-31. 2 See p.

M.

■O

R

2 * 2 - <■

-■et—OZ.

242

The Coal Question.

I draw the conclusion that I think any one
would draw, that ioe cannot long maintain our
present rate of increase of consumption; 'that
we can never advance to the higher amounts of
consumption supposed. But this only means that
the checii to our progress m ust become perceptible
within a century from the present time ; that the
cost of fuel must rise, perhaps nothin a lifetime,
to a rate injurious to our commercial and manu-
facturing supremacy ; and the conclusion is
inevitable, that our present happy progressive
condition is a thing of limited duration.

I may here notice that the exact amount of
our stock of coal is not the matter of chief
moment. The reader who thoroughly appre-
hends the natural law of growth, or multipli-
cation in social affairs, will see that the absolute
quantity of coal rather defines the height of
wealth to which we shall rise, than the period
during which we shall enjoy either the growth or
the climax of prosperity. For, as the multipli-
cation of our numbers and works proceeds at a
constant rate, the numerical additions, as we
have fully seen in many statistical illustrations,
constantly grow. Ultimately the simple addition
to our consumption in twenty or thirty years
will become of moment compared with our total

243

Of our Consumption of Coal.

stores. The addition to onr population in four
years now is as great as the whole increase of the
century 1651—1751, and the increase of coal
consumption between 1859 and 1862 is equal to
the probable annual consumption at the begin-
ning of this century. It is on this account that I
attach less importance than might be thought
right to an exact estimate of the coal existing in
Great Britain. Were our coal half as abundant
again as Mr. Hull states, the effect would only be
to defer the climax of our growth perhaps for
one generation. And I repeat, the absolute
amount of coal in the country rather affects the
height to which we shall rise than the time for
which we shall enjoy the happy prosperity of
progress.

Suppose our progress to be checked within
half a century, yet by that time our consumption
will probably be three or four times what it now
is ; there is nothing impossible or improbable in
this ; it is a moderate supposition, considering
that our consumption has increased eight-fold in
the last sixty years. But how shortened and
darkened will the prospects of the country appear,
with mines already deep, fuel dear, and yet a
high rate of consumption to keep up if we are
not to retrograde.

R 2

244

The Coal Question.

Doubts have been expressed by Mr. Vivian,
Mr. Hull, and others, as to whether the number
of our mining population and the area of our
coal-fields will admit of any further great exten-
sion of our yield. It is said that underground
hands must be born and bred to the occupation
of coal mining ; and if we consider that many
children of miners may be induced to emigrate,
or to avoid their fathers’ occupation on account
of its hardship and danger, there may be a posi-
tive lack of hands. I 1 acts utterly negative such
a notion. The Census returns show the number
of coal-miners to have been —

In 1851 183,389

And in 18C1 246,613

The increase is at the rate of 34 - 4 per cent, in
ten years, or about 3 per cent, per annum, which
accords well with the rate of increase of coal
raised, if we remember that the use of machinery,
and the increased investment of capital in coal
mining, enlists greater resources and involves
greater cost than is expressed in the mere number
of miners.

The notion, again, that there is anything in
the area or condition of our coal-fields to prevent
a present extension of the yield, is completely

Of our Consumption of Coal. 245

contradicted by accounts of the number of col-
lieries existing in the United Kingdom. 1

Year. Number of Collieries.

1854 2,397

1855 2,613

1856 2,829

1857 2,867

1858 2,958

1859 2,949

1860 3,009

1861 3,025

1862 3,088

1863 3, ISO

1864 3,268

Tbe general increase is at tlie rate of 36 per cent,
in ten years, or 3 - l per cent, per annum. Nearly
tbe same average rate of increase is shown in
tbe number of pits in tbe Northumberland and
Durham coal-field, which were 41 in number in
1799 2 and 289 in 1864.

If we consider that new pits opened are deeper
and larger concerns than the old pits laid in,
and capable of much larger yields, we must allow
that the coal-owners, at least, both expect and
are prepared to meet a largely increased demand
for a good many years to come. But we should
remember that the more rapid and continued
our present expansion, the shorter must be its
continuance.

1 Mineral Statistics, passim.

- P. Cooper, Mining Journal, Jan. 21, 1865.

246

The Coal Question.

CHAPTER XIII.

or THE EXPORT AND IMPORT OP COAL.

It lias been suggested by many random thinkers
that when our coal is done here, we may import
it as we import so many other raw materials from
abroad. “ I can conceive,” says one writer, “the
coal-fields of this country so far exhausted, that
the daughter in her maturity shall be able to
pay back to the mother more than she herself
received. May we not look forward to a time
when those ‘water-lanes’ which both dissever
and unite the old and new world, shall be trod
by keels laden with the coal produce of America
for the ports of Britain ? and in such a traffic
there will be abundant use for vessels as capa-
cious- and swift as the Great Eastern.''’

I am sorry to say that the least acquaintance
with the principles of trade, and the particular
circumstances of our trade, furnishes a complete
negative to all such notions. While the export
of coal is a vast and groioing branch of our

Of the Export and Export of Coal. 247

trade , a reversal of the trade, and a future return .
current of coal, is a commercial impossibility and lj
absurdity. J

But why, it may he asked, can we now export
millions of tons of coal, and distribute them to
all the j)orts of the globe, and yet cannot hope to
bring back our lost riches in the improved vessels
of the future ? We have been able to reverse the
woollen, linen, and cotton trades ; to import the
copper and tin and lead ores, "which we used to
draw from our own veins ; to buy our supplies
of food — wheat, dairy produce, butcher’s meat,
and eggs from abroad ; and, even in such a bulky
material as timber, to replace our own oak and
elm and beech, by the deal and pine, mahogany
and teak, of distant forests. If by our manu-
facturing skill we can thus successively reverse
every great trade, buying raw materials with
finished goods, instead of finished goods with
raw materials, why not also reverse the coal-
trade ? Is not Tree Trade the sheet anchor that
will never fail us ? Unfortunately not. There
is a false step of analogy in such reason ing. Mark
what accompanies the reversal of each branch of
commerce — it is the increased employment of
coal, and coal-driven labour at home, in the
smelting-furnace or the factory. The reversal of

248

The Coal Question.

every other branch of trade is the ivorlc of coal ,
and the coal-trade cannot reverse itself. An ri
the facts which may be adduced concerning the
coal-export trade, so strikingly illustrate the
importance of our coal-mines to our maritime
and commercial position, that I shall give, at
some length, arguments which demonstrate,
more than sufficiently, the impossibility of im-
porting coal.

Trade is manifestly reciprocal, and free trade
only allows the development of any peculiar ex-
cellence, or advantage, and the exchange of the
products for those more easily procured else-
where. One most peculiar advantage is the
force which coal, skilfully used, places at our
disposal. It is our last great resource — the one
kind of wealth by the sufficient employment
of which we might reverse every other trade,
draw every other material from abroad until
the kingdom was one immense Manchester, or
one expanse of “ Black Country.” But take
away that resource, and our expectations from
free trade must be of a very minor character.
“ Easy access to the raw material,” said Mr. Glad-
stone, “ and abundant supplies of fuel, lead to
the creation of manufactures. Put these two
conditions together, and you have the combina-

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 249

tion which makes South Lancashire a busy
manufacturing county, with the great town of
Liverpool behind it.” But observe that the fuel
of South Lancashire is a condition as well as the
raw material from abroad.

The truth is that if coal as well as other raw
materials were found abroad in Pennsylvania,
Prussia, N ew South Wales, or Brazil, the whole
cost of freight would be a premium upon esta-
blishing the system of coal-supported industry
on the spot. Even the narrow seas of St. George’s
and the English Channels are impassable by coal-
driven industry. Ireland, especially Lublin, has
drawn coal from Whitehaven time out of mind,
for domestic purposes and local manufactures.
But the practical non-existence of coal-mines in
Ireland has rendered it impossible for any branch
of manufacture consuming much coal to exist
there. If a work paid at all in Ireland, there
must be a margin of profit- in transferring the
work to an English coal-field. Similarly, it is
explained in a recent very able Report 1 upon the
coal-trade of Erance, that no great branch of
coal-consuming industry could ever arise in
Erance upon English coal.

“ We cannot expect,” says the reporter, M.

J Situation de 1’Industrie Houillere en 1S59, p, -S.

250

The Goal Question.

Rouher, “ to make foreign coal the basis of a
great branch of industry. Coal is a cumbersome
commodity, and its cost is doubled or tripled by
lading and unlading, and conveying it 100 or
200 miles. To demand coal from England and
compete with the products raised upon English
coal-fields is manifestly to place ourselves in an
inferiority. About two tons and a half of coal,
for instance, are required to produce one ton of
cast iron. It is much easier to draw our cast
iron direct from Glasgow, than to transport a
weight of coal two and a half times greater. It
requires two or three tons of coal to convert cast
iron into wrought iron ; that is to say, five tons
at least are needed to make wrought iron from
the ore. It is most economical, then, to demand
from England the finished article.”

No one will properly understand the trade in
coal who forgets that coal is the most bulky and
weighty of all commodities. In this, as in other
respects, it stands wholly by itself. N o other com-
modity at all approaches it in the vast quantity
required, and it is even said that the weight of
coal carried over English railways is double the
weight of all other merchandise put together. 1
The cost of carriage is the main element of price

j iSitULilion tic l’Industric Ho in lie- re en 1850, p. 53.

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 251

everywhere except in the coal-field, or its close
neighbourhood. The best coal is put on hoard at
Newcastle for 9s. per ton. Before it reaches
Trance, it is about trebled; in the Mediterranean
ports, Genoa, or Leghorn, it is quadrupled, while
in many remote parts of the world coal cannot he
purchased for less than 3 1. or 3/. 10s. per ton. 1

To go back to the suggestion with which w r e
started, that our coal supplies will sometime he
imported from America, let us consider that
about 1,200 colliers of the size of the Great
Eastern would be required to maintain our present
supplies only. And whatever the size of the
steam-vessels in' which we may suppose the coal
carried, their united tonnage would be at least
five times the whole of our tonnage now em-
ployed in every trade and in every part of the
world. The cost of such an unheard-of fleet
would be the Aveight acting against us and in
favour of American industry. And as all the
colliers, railways, and canals cannot supply
London with coal much under twenty shillings
per ton, it is extravagant to suppose that coal
could reach us from America for less than forty
or sixty shillings per ton. Our industry would

1 Ryder. Treatise on the Economy of Fuel on board Mon-of-AVar
Steamers, }\ 3.

252

The Goal Question.

then have to contend with fuel, its all-important
food, eight or twelve times as dear as it now is in
England and America.

The complete commercial absurdity of the
supposition renders any more accurate calcula-
tions superfluous.

But it is asked, How is a large export trade
of coal possible, if an import trade is commercially
impossible ? This export trade is far the most
weighty and wide-spread trade in the world.
Taking the Mineral Statistics for 1862, we notice
with some wonder that shipments of coal, in
amounts from five tons up to 482,179 tons
(Hamburg), are made to the following number
of ports in the several countries : —

France . . .

No. of Ports.
. . 122

Africa ....

No

of Ports.
22

Denmark. . .

. . 135

Australia . . .

9

Norway . . .

. . 50

East Indies . .

34

Sweden . . .

. . 37

West Indies .

37

Russia . . .

. . 25

North America .

38

Austria . . .

. . 7

South America .

43

Germany . . .

. . 54

Channel Islands

3

Prussia . .

. . 17

Heligoland

1

Holland . . .

. . 24

Iceland . . .

1

Belgium . .

. . 7

Azores ....

3

Spain ....

. . 36

Canaries . . .

3

Portugal . . .

. . 8

Madeira . .

1

Italy ....

. . 18

Ascension . . .

1

Mediterranean .

. . 18

St. Helena

1

Greece . . .

. . 5

Falkland Islands

1

Turkey . . .

. . 17

New Zealand

4

Sandwich Islands

1

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 253

Number of Coal-Ports in Europe 580

Ditto Ditto elsewhere 203

Total number of Coal-Ports 783

In short, excluding some of the extremely
distant North Pacific ports, it may he said that
British coal is bought and consumed in every
considerable port in the world. It competes on
equal terms and gives the price to native coal
or other fuel, in nearly all maritime parts of the
world. This extraordinary fact is partly due to
the unrivalled excellence of Newcastle and Welsh
steam-coals, and the cheapness with which they
can he put on board ship. But it is mainly due
to the fact that coal is carried as ballast, or
makeweight, and is subject to the low rates of
back-carriage.

The subject of the variation of freights and
their influence on the currents of trade is a very
curious one, hut has been so overlooked by
writers on trade and economy, that I may he
pardoned giving a few illustrations of its nature
and importance.

Whether the mode of conveyance he by vessel,
canal-boat, waggon, carriage, or pack-horse, the
vehicle is always required to return hack to the
place whence it started. The whole gains of a

254

The Coal Question .

trip must on the average pay all expenses and
leave a margin for profit, but it is immaterial
whether the necessary fare or freight-charges he
paid on the whole, or any part of the journey.
Usually, a hackney coach, post-chaise, or canal-
boat starts full, upon its outward trip, without
calculating upon any return fare. In hackney-
coach regulations the return fare is usually fixed
at half the chief fare, but in the case of post-
chaises, canal-boats, and perhaps some other con-
veyances, the return fare is usually the perquisite
of the drivers. In the old mode of pack-horse
conveyance the same was. probably the case.

The advantage of gaining something by a
return journey is so obvious that journeys are
often planned to allow of profitable return
freights. Tor instance, in the days of pack-horse
conveyance, Sir Francis Willoughby built Wol-
laton Hall, in 1580, of stone brought on horse-
back from Ancaster in Lincolnshire, thirty-five
miles away, but it was arranged that the trains
of pack-horses should load hack with coal, which
was taken in exchange for the stone. And when
efforts were made at the beginning of this century
to bring Staffordshire coal to London in order to
destroy the previous monopoly of the northern
coal-owners, it was expected that the expense of

Of the Export and Import of Goal. 255

canal conveyance would be reduced by tbe back
carriage of manure from London thirty or forty
miles up tbe country, and of flints all tbe way
from Harefield to tbe Potteries. 1

Tbe railway tolls on goods traffic, again, are
not fixed at an uniform rate per ton, or per
cubic foot, as might seem most fair and simple,
but are adjusted in a complicated tariff so as to
encourage as large a traffic as possible and give
the best return. And one chief principle of this
is to encourage back traffic by low or almost
nominal rates. Trucks carrying various materials
into towns may be used to carry manures and
refuse out. Waggons carrying coals in one
direction may carry back ores, slates, bricks,
building-stone, flints, limestone, &c.

But it is in over-sea conveyance that we find
tbe most important instances of the arrangement
of freights.

In tbe year 1325 a vessel is recorded to have
brought corn from Prance to Newcastle and to
have returned laden with coal. This is one of
the earliest notices of tbe coal-trade, but it fur-
nishes the exact type of what it has ever since
been, a simple exchange of cargoes. And King
Charles seems to have been intelligently aware

1 Second Report on the Coal-Trade. 1800 , p. 2-2.

256

The Coal Question.

of the reciprocal nature of the coal-trade when
at Oxford, in November 1643, he wrote to the
Marquis of Newcastle to send a vessel full of
coals to Holland and get much-needed arms in
return. 1 2

The following is perhaps the most remarkable
example of an exchange of freight : — “ In Corn-
wall there exist mines of copper and of tin, hut
none of coal. The copper ore, which requires
the largest quantity of fuel for its reduction, is
conveyed by ships to the coal-fields of Wales, and
is smelted at Swansea, whilst the vessels which
convey it take hack cargoes of coal to supply the
steam-engines for draining the mines, and to
smelt the tin, which requires a much less quan-
tity of fuel for that purpose.” 3 In this way the
copper-smelting trade has been carried across an
arm of the sea and settled in a place where there
is no copper ore, by the joint attraction of cheap
fuel and gratuitous carriage. Vessels must have
conveyed coals to the Cornish engines whether
they brought hack ores or not, and to carry
coals for copper smelting too would require a
second fleet of vessels.

The whole coasting trade of the British coasts

1 Brand’s History of Newcastle, vol. ii. p. 280.

2 Babbage in Barlow’s Oyclopsodia, 1851, p. 55.

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 257

is, and always lias been, greatly dependent on
coal. Coasters going to any point of the coast
to bring away slates, stone, lime, agricultural
produce, &c. go out from Liverpool, Cardiff, the
Clyde, Newcastle, or other large ports, with a
cargo of coals, which everywhere meets a ready
sale. Double freights are thus ensured.

In many cases a more complicated circle of
traffic is established. Vessels bringing iron from
Cardiff to Liverpool, on its way to America,
often go on witli Lancashire coal to Diversion,
and return to Cardiff with the haematite ores
required for mixture with the Welsh argillaceous
ores. Vessels, again, carrying slates or stone
to Bristol from the Welsh quarries often take
steam-coal to Liverpool and return to the Welsh
coast with bituminous coal for household use,
the difference of quality being sufficient to esta-
blish an exchange trade. By such natural
arrangements, not only are the great currents
of industrial traffic bound together into one
profitable whole, but coal is supplied cheaply to
all parts of the coast, where it is landed at the
nearest convenient place to a village, or group of
villages, and retailed from a central coal-yard.
The household coal, with smith’s small coal,
culm for lime-burning, draining-tiles, and a few

s

258

The Coal Question’.

other articles, form the only common and general
coasting cargoes. On the other hand, whenever
there is a great preponderance of freight in one
direction, the shipping mnst necessarily return
empty like the railway coal-waggons from London.
The sailing or steam-colliers which supply the
London market not only have no outward freight
as a usual thing, but they have to purchase
ballast in the Thames and discharge it in the
Tyne. The ballast-wharves of Lie Tyne are often
mentioned in the very early history of Newcastle,
and the heaps of gravel, and stones, and rubbish
drawn from the ships have grown from those
days to these.

“ To carry on the coasting trade in coal to
London, 10,000 tons of gravel are weekly sup-
plied in the Thames, and establishments in the
North are actually paid for discharging and
conveying it to a convenient place of deposit.” 1

At one period of his life, George Stephenson
was brakesman to the fixed engine which hauled
up the ballast upon the heap, “ a monstrous
accumulation of earth, chalk, and Thames mud,
already laid there to form a puzzle for future
antiquarians.” 2 And Stephenson often earned

1 Dunn on the Winning and Working of (Joal Mines, p. 338.

2 Smiles’ Lives of the Engineers, vol. iii. pp. 38 — 41.

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 259

extra wages in the evening by taking a turn at
heaving the ballast out of the collier vessels,
while his engine was taken in charge by his
friend Pairbairn.

In the foreign trade the influence of freights
is far more distinct and important. A ship is
often chartered for a specific voyage out and
home, freight being provided both ways ; but
more commonly the homeward freight is the
chief object the British shipowner aims at, and
he sends the ship out often at a loss upon the
outward passage, depending upon the captain or
foreign agents to find a profitable home cargo.
This important circumstance concerning the
shipping and trading interests has often been
alluded to, in pamphlets, speeches, or parlia-
mentary reports. Dr. Buckland, for instance,
thus explained the curious fact that Netherland
coal was exported to America and avoided Prance,
so much in want of it for her manufactures, by
attributing it to the want of back carriage. 1
Mr. T. Y. Hall, again, stated clearly : — “ The
owners of vessels trading between England and
Prance find that coal answers the purpose of
ballast when other goods cannot be obtained at

’ liepnrt on the Coal-Trade, 1830.

s 2

260

The Coal Question.

remunerative freights.” 1 But the most distinct
statement is in a pamphlet called forth by Sir
Itobert Peel’s proposal, in 1842, to revive the
export tax on coal. 2

“The proposed duty would produce also an
indirect hut injurious effect upon the importation
of the raw materials of manufactures into this
country at the lowest cost. It is well known
that most of these articles are of a bulky nature;
it is important to reduce the expense of freight
upon them, and this the present facility for ex-
porting coal secures to a considerable degree,
being an article that provides an outward freight
to a ship. This is peculiarly illustrated in the
Baltic, from whence tallow, hemp, flax, and
timber, articles of low value but great bulk, con-
stitute the objects of imports, while our principal
articles of export are indigo, cochineal, dyes,
drugs, gums, &c., articles of great value but small
bulk ; so that it is necessary to have some com-
pensating article of low value for our own ex-
portation, to equalize and reduce the rate of
freight. The same reasoning applies to our im-
ports from the Mediterranean, and indeed most

1 Trans. N. of England Institute of Mining Engineers, vol. vi.

p. 106.

2 Observations on the proposed Duties on the Exportation of Coals.
London, 1842, pp. 14, 15.

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 261

places of our intercourse from whence we derive
our raw materials ; while the export of common
goods, such as anchors, chains, and other
heavy commodities, of which whole cargoes can
never he made up, has materially increased at
Newcastle and Sunderland since the facility of
shipment of coal hy exporting ships has been
provided.”

In British trade, especially under the present
free-trade policy, there is a great preponderance
of homeward cargoes. Our imports consist of
bulky raw materials and food. Nearly the whole
of the corn, fruits, live stock, provisions, sugar,
coffee, tea, tobacco, spirits, are consumed here.
Timber, hemp, guano, hides, hones, with dye and
tan materials, such as logwood, indigo, valonia,
are either consumed here, or contribute little to
the bulk of our exports. Cotton, silk, wool, and
flax are either used up in this country, or re-
turned of a smaHer bulk. Our exports of cast
and wrought iron, hardwares, and general manu-
factures are rather heavy than bulky, and of a
far higher value than the imports proportionally
to the hulk. A large part of our shipping would
thus have to leave our ports half empty, or in
ballast, unless there were some makeweight or
natural supply of bulky cargo as hack carriage.

262

The Coal Question.

Salt to some extent supplies the Liverpool
shipowners with outward cargo, and it is re-
markable that the tenth Earl of Dundonald, a
man as ingenious and energetic as the late Earl,
clearly foresaw the value of the salt -trade in this
respect, and urged its extension upon the nation
in an able pamphlet 1 of the year 1785. Though
the Northern nations then drew their salt from
Spain, Portugal, or Sardinia, he held that “ salt
may become a great article of export trade from
this country ” to Elanders, Holland, part of
Germany, Prussia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden,
and Russia, because two thirds of the outward-
going vessels to some of these countries sail in
ballast, making their freight upon their home-
ward voyage, and it was not to be doubted that
they would rather accept half freights which,
however small, are a clear gain, than incur the
cost of ballast. Our export of salt exactly fulfils
the purpose explained by the Earl, but on a more
extensive scale than he could possibly have an-
ticipated. In 1861 about 700,000 tons of salt were
exported from England, by far the largest part of
which comes down the Weaver from the Cheshire
works to Liverpool, and is there shipped. 2

1 The Present State of the Manufacture of Salt Explained. By the
Earl of Dundonald. London : 1785.

2 Braithwaite Poole. On the Commerce of Liverpool, 1854, p. 33.

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 263

There is a curious relation too between the
earthenware manufacture and the shipping in-
terest of the Western ports. Prom early times
indeed the Staffordshire earthenware trade has
presented a remarkable instance of the arrange-
ment of freights. The materials of earthenware,
fuel, flintstones, and clay are never found together
like the materials of the iron manufacture ; the
finished earthenware too is of so bulky a nature
when packed in crates, that a large part of its
cost depends upon the cost of conveyance.
Proximity to a coal-field is the first requisite of
a pottery ; proximity to a market the next requi-
site. Both these requisites are combined in the
Staffordshire potteries. In the days of pack-
horse conveyance their central position was of
great importance, because the pack-horses, which
brought the flints and clay from the nearest
ports, could he used to carry and distribute the
crockery slung in crates over the horses’ backs.
The flints were brought from the chalk districts
of the south-east of England, by sea to Hull, and
thence up the Trent as far as possible ; while the
clay came from Devonshire and Cornwall, either
by the Severn as far as Bewdley, or up the
Mersey and Weaver to Winsford. 1

1 Smiles’ Engineers, vol. i. p. 447.

264

The Coal Question.

In later days the early opening of canal com-
munication and the commercial proximity of the
potteries to Liverpool have been of the highest
importance to both. So much iron and other
heavy articles are shipped at Liverpool, that the
shipowners need some light, bulky article to fill
up the higher parts of the ships’ holds. A con-
siderable part of the produce of the Staffordshire
potteries, accordingly, goes to Liverpool, the ex-
port of crockery being stimulated by the favour-
able freights offered. And such is the demand
for crockery at the port, that several attempts
have been made to attract the manufacture itself
to Liverpool or Birkenhead. Further, the Clyde
shipowners, having a great superfluity of heavy
iron cargoes, and experiencing a like want of
light freight to complete the loading of their
ships, have actually attempted to create a pottery
manufacture about Glasgow with that purpose . 1

At Liverpool indeed the whole products of the
Lancashire factories,- the earthenware and hard-
ware of Staffordshire, the iron of South Wales,
added to the salt of Cheshire, furnish a large
mass of outward cargo, and the export of coal
has hitherto been of minor importance. But

1 Hearn’s Plutology, p. 310, quoting Journal of the Statistical
Society, vol. xx. p. 134.

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 265

with the progress of trade, that port will receive
such immense masses inwards, that outward
cargoes of coal will come more into demand. In
1850, Mr. William Laird urged the suitability of
Liverpool for the export of coal, and there cannot
he a doubt that in the natural progress of our
trade, coal-staiths at Liverpool or Runcorn,
supplied by direct lines from the South Lancashire
field, will ship great amounts of coal ballast.

At other ports coal is, and long has been, an
inestimable benefit to the shipowners. It is
destructive to their profits to keep a vessel long
in port waiting for cargo, and it is worse to send
her off in ballast. Where there are coal-staiths,
however, she can be loaded and dispatched in a
day or two, with a cargo that will at least pay
expenses, and find a ready sale in any part of the
world. It is on this principle that the Man-
chester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway are
raising Grimsby into a port. Just in proportion,
it is found, as they offer outward cargoes of coal
can they induce vessels to resort to the port with
their inward cargoes.

It is in the rates of freight that we can best
study the relative demand and supply of cargo.
A want of outward cargo causes shipowners to
bid for what is to be had, and reduce their prices

266

The Coal Question.

of freight accordingly. Were there no ballast
cargo like coal available, the outward rates must
become quite nominal, until it would be profit-
able to send bricks, flagstones, and paving stones
on long sea voyages. But the fact that coal
may always be shipped establishes a certain
minimum rate of freight depending upon the
price at which we can compete with foreign coal
or other fuel, and force a trade so essential to
our shipowners.

In the current rates of freight (May, 1864)
we may detect many effects of demand and supply,
as well as a general confirmation of the facts
stated. Thus the outward freight to Bombay is
only 20s. per ton, the homeward freight being
60s. or three times as much, owing to the large
shipments thence of cotton, rice, seeds, &c. The
outward rate to Aden, however, is 80s. and to
Suez 50s., owing chiefly to the considerable de-
mand at those points for coal for the Peninsular
and Oriental Mail steamers, with the absence of
freights thence.

At the following Eastern ports the large pre-
ponderance of the homeward freights of cotton,
sugar, tea, jute, and other Eastern produce, causes
the inward to exceed the outward coal-freight
several times.

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 267

Outward, Homeward.

s. d. s. d.

Calcutta 17 6 .... 75 0

Singapore 27 0 .... 75 0

Shanghai 40 0 .... 72 10

Mauritius 20 0 .... 50 0

In South America, again, the demand for carriage
of hides, bones, nitrate of soda, &c. raises the
freight to England in a considerable ratio.

Outward.
s. d.

Rio de Janeiro ... 28 0

Pernambuco .... 19 0

Rio Grande .... 40 0

Homeward.
s. d.

45 0
41 0

50 0

Throughout the West Indies the demand for
shipment of coffee, sugar, logwood, mahogany,
&c. raises home freights to double the outward.

Outward,
s. d.

Porto Rico 25 6

Jamaica 28 0

St. Jago de Cuba . . 27 0

Havannah 27 6

Homeward,
s. d.
52 6
43 0
60 0
55 0

The homeward freights from New York chiefly
depend upon the shipments of corn. Taking the
rate at 6s. 3 d. per quarter, we find the following
relation by weight : —

New York

Outward.
s. d.
22 0

Homeward,
s. d.
30 0

For Canadian ports there is a greater dispro-

268

The Coal Question.

portion, owing to the inward excess for timber
freights and the less outward demand.

Outward. Homeward.

s. d. s. d.

Montreal (wheat) . . .... 30 0

Halifax 170....

In the Mediterranean ports there is far less
disproportion on the average, and it is curious
that the preponderance of freights is opposite at
the two ends. At the lower, or Western ports,
outward exceed inward freights, as at Marseilles.

Outward. Homeward.

s. d. s. d.

Marseilles 20 0 .... 16 0

At the higher or Eastern ports on the con-
trary, the fruit freights from the Archipelago,
or the wheat, tallow, and other freights from
the Black Sea, raise the homeward rates as

follows : —

Outward. Homeward,

s. d. s. d.

Smyrna 23 6 .... 37 6

Odessa 23 0 .... 45 0

On the West Coast of South America we meet
with an immense excess of homeward cargo.
Not only are there large quantities of nitrate of
soda, copper ore, and wool to ship to Europe,
hut there is also the guano trade from Callao,
a most remarkable instance of the conveyance

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 269

of bulky material. Now, as our coal has to
compete with the native Chilian bituminous coal
on most unequal terms, we find the following
immense disproportion of outward coal and
homeward guano freights.

Outward. ' Homeward.

s, d. s. d.

Callao 24 0 .... 80 0

A curious exchange has recently sprung up
of Newcastle coal for Spanish or Esparto grass,
a material much required to make paper for
The Times newspaper, and the vast masses of
recent periodical literature. The following are
the rates

Outward to the Spanish Ports. Homeward to Tyne,

s. d. s. d.

23 0 18 0

The demand for coal apparently is so good in
Spain that the coal bears almost the same freight
as if sent to the "West Coast of South America !
And thus while we almost make the Peruvians
a present of our coal, the Spaniards in a less
degree may be said to make us a present of the
materials of paper.

"With few exceptions, then, homeward freights
are in excess of outward freights from one and
a half to three or four-fold. And the very excep-
tions, arising from an extraordinary foreign

27Q

The Coal Question..

demand, for coal would, if examined, confirm
the view of tlie important part that coal plays
in our trade.

That the facilities for getting coal freights
from Newcastle and the other Eastern coal-ports
appreciably reduce rates of freights to those
ports is clearly shown in the following rates
from Dantzig to the east coast of England,
during 1861* : —

Timber per Load. Wheat per Quarter.
s. cl s. d.

To Coal Ports ... 14 0 .... 3 1^

To other Ports ... 17 3 .... 3 9

Thirty years ago it was stated that there was
no considerable amount of hack freight for
vessels bringing timber from Memel except
coal. 2

One of the most curious effects of the balance
of freights is seen in the North American coal
trade. In 1862 we shipped coal to the amount
of 418,601 tons to thirty-eight ports of the
United States, Canada, and the other British
Colonies on the Western seaboard of North
America. At the same time an export trade in
coal is constantly carried on from the Cape
Breton mines, along the coast to New York

1 Commercial Reports from Foreign Consuls, 1862, p. 155.

2 Committee on Manufactures, 1883. Queries, 7,420-5, Sic.

Of the Export cmd Import of Coal. 271

and Philadelphia. Lastly, there is a trade in
American coals to the extent, in 1860, of 140,607
tons from the Pennsylvanian field to the West
Indian Islands, prohahly by the return voyage
of vessels bringing sugar, coffee, fruits, and
other tropical products. Such a circulation of
a bulky, cheap commodity like coal, and the
fact that coal is actually shipped to Phila-
delphia, the port of the American coal-fields, is
as paradoxical as carrying coals to Newcastle,
and is inexplicable except as a consequence of
the balance of freights.

It would he difficult to over-estimate the bene-
fits the trade in coal has conferred upon us.
Writers for some centimes hack have been
unanimous in regarding the Newcastle collier
fleet as the nursery of our seamen. The “ New-
castle voyage is ... if not the onely, yet the
especiall nursery and schoole of seamen : Por,
as it is the chiefest, so it is the gentlest, and
most open to landmen.” 1 And no one could
better have expressed than the writer of the
above, the way in which an Englishman regards
a ship. “ As concerning ships, it is that which
every one knoweth, and can say, they are our
weapons, they are our ornaments, they are our

1 The Trades' Increase, p. 25.

272 The Coal Question.

strength., they are our pleasures, they are our
defence, they are our profit; the subject by
them is made rich, the kingdome through them
strong ; the Prince in them is mighty ; in a
word by them in a manner we live, the king-
dome is, the king reigneth.” 1

Another able anonymous writer, in arguing
against the old 5s. tax upon seaborne coal, ex-
presses similar views, his chief purpose being
“ to show how pernicious this tax upon coal is
to Trade and Navigation, the safety and glory
of England.” 2

“ The collier trade is the true parent and
support of our navigation.”

“ The collier fleet,” he says again, 3 “ is the
great body of the shipping of England, and all
our other trades are served by detachments from
it. Our East country, Norway, and a great part
of the West Indian fleet, are but parts of the
collier fleet ; from which they may depart one
or two voyages in the year, as the contingency
of the market abroad, or a chance freight at
home offers. Erom which as soon as performed,
they return again into the collier trade ; that is,

1 The Trades’ Increase, p. 2.

1 The Mischief of the Five-Shilling Tax upon Coal. London,

1699, p. 3 Ibid. p. 5.

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 273

indeed, the refuge, as well as the nursery of our
navigation.” But in the following he expresses
still more exactly the part that coal now plays
in our coasting and foreign shipping. “It’s the
collier trade alone that affords constant work to
the navigation of England. It is there that
every idle ship and every idle saylor are sure
never to want a voyage or a berth to New-
castle.” 1

“ The collier trade is the most huge and bulky
trade that possibly can be managed, and there-
fore in its nature most proper, above all others,
to employ not only vast numbers of people upon
it, but to afford continual work for them. All
our other trades are by fits and starts. Ships
and sailors must have constant work.” 2

And the Erench so clearly perceive the mari-
time advantages this trade gives, that they
attribute to us in the present day the policy
of promoting exportation.

“ The English Government uses every possible
means to stimulate an exportation which contri-
butes powerfully to its maritime preponderance
without hurting its industrial preponderance.” 3

1 The Mischief of the Five-Shilling Tax upon Coal. London,

1699, p. 5. s Ibid. p. 6.

3 Situation de l’Ind. &c. p. 27.

274

The Coal Question .

And tlie Newcastle manufacturers are well
aware of the advantages they enjoy.

“The ready communication,” they say, “which
has been obtained with foreign ports, by means
of the numerous vessels employed in the expor-
tation of coals, has greatly facilitated the sale
of the various articles manufactured by your
memorialists, and has consequently increased
the value of property employed in manufactures
in this district.” 1

Our exports of coal now amount to about
nine million tons in a year, the sale of which
in foreign ports must return fully four millions
sterling to our coalowners, and six millions or
more in the shape of freight to our shipowners.
To prohibit this trade would therefore be to
incur a burden equal to the income tax at its
worst. And though the greater part of this
burden would be borne by the community in
general as the consumers of foreign produce, it
would be inflicted through that branch of our
industry, our navigation, which is truly the
safety and glory of England.

But on the other hand we cannot look upon
our growing exports without anxiety. The

1 Memorial of the Manufacturers of the Tyne, of iron, lead, glass,
rope, alkali, sail-cloth, &c. (1842 ?)

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 27 5

following numbers sbow the extraordinary rate
of growth since the repeal of the export tax : —

EXPORT OF COAE.

Year.

Amount of Coal
exported.

Coal duty per ton.

Rate of increase
per cent of ex-
ports in tenyears.

Tons.

s. d.

1821

170,941

7 6

1831

356,419

4

0

109

1841

1,497,197

0 0

320 ■

1851

3,468,545

0

0

132

1861

7,855,115

0 0

126

1865

9,170,477

0

0

47

Our exports were more than quadrupled in
ten years under a repeal of the duty, and have
more than doubled themselves in each subse-
quent ten years. And though there is a slight
check in the last few years, from some fluctua-
tion of commerce, no one can doubt that the
extension of our commerce and the growth of
continental industry will demand a continued
increase of exports.

“ Independent of the superiority of the article,
the freights of vessels from our shores are getting
so low, and the distance between Great Britain

276

The Coal Question.

and the coast of France is so short, that we
shall always he able to have the advantage over
Belgian and even French coal in the seaport
towns.”

And the inevitable progress of free trade will
ever increase the tendency to export coal. As
we subsist more and more upon foreign corn,
meat, sugar, rice, coffee, tea, fruit, &c. and work
more and more on foreign timber, ores, cotton,
silk, wool, dye-woods, oils, seeds, &c. while
returning the costly and elaborate products of
our steam-driven factories, there must be an ever-
growing surplus of inward freights and a corre-
sponding demand for outward ballast freights.

Our foreign coal trade has been, is, and will be
an integral and essential part of our system. It
is the alpha and omega of our trade. As it was
the earliest nursery of our seamen, so it is now
theh especial support, and it bids fair to hasten
us to an early end. It makes our limited fields
the common property of the sea-coast inhabitants
of all countries. The Newcastle mines are almost
as high a benefit to the French, Dutch, Prussian,
Danish, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, and Italian
coast-towns, as to our own. And foreigners not
unnaturally think we are simple enough in thus
lending ourselves to them. “ It has often been

Of the Export and Import of Coal. 277

repeated, for some time past, that there is one
simple means of competing with England in her
manufactures. It is to buy her coal from her,
and England has lent herself to this design hy
developing and facilitating her exportation of
coal in every possible way.” 1

The extraordinary progress of our steam marine
was noticed in a previous chapter. Its close
connexion with the export trade of coal cannot
escape attention. Our lines of steam-vessels
create a demand for coal at the most distant
and widely extended points of the globe ; while
low, outward freights enable coal to he sent
cheaply to those points. Accordingly, as long
as Britain maintains her present commercial and
maritime position, not only the continental and
other sea-coasts, in most parts of the world, but
also the greater part of the steam-vessels plying
on every sea, will draw their supplies from those
seaboard coal-fields of Newcastle, South Wales,
the Clyde, and the Mersey, which, taken as a
whole, in the various quality of their fuel, in
their facilities of shipment, and their supply of
over-sea freight, are wholly unrivalled hy any
other coal-fields.

The absurdity of the notion of this country

1 Situation de l’Industrie Houill&re en 1859.

278

The Coal Question.

importing coals on any large scale, will now be
apparent. The fact that we now export large
quantities of coal instead of showing the possi-
bility of a return current, shows its commercial
impossibility. The coal exported acts as a make-
weight, to remedy in some degree the one-sided
character of our trade. Coal is to us that one
great raw material which balances the whole
mass of the other raw materials we import, and
which we pay for either by coal in its crude
form, or by manufactures which represent a
greater or less quantity of coal consumed in the
steam-engine, or the smelting furnace. To
import coal as well as other raw materials would
be against the essentially reciprocal nature of
trade. The weight of our inward cargoes would
be multiplied many times, and but little weight
left for outward carriage ; almost every influence
which now acts, and for centuries has acted,
in favour of our maritime and manufacturing
success, would then act against it, and it would
be arrogance and folly indeed to suppose that
even Britain can carry forward her industry in
spite of nature, and in the want of every
material condition. In our successes hitherto it
is to nature we owe at least as much as to our
own energies.

Coal Resources of Different Coun tries. 279

CHAPTER XIV.

ON THE COMPARATIVE COAE RESOURCES OF
DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.

It is essential to our inquiry to view the several
eoal-producing countries comparatively. Thus
only can we gain a true notion of our singular
position.

The following statement gives the amounts of
coal raised about the years 1858 — 1860, in the
chief coal-producing countries : —

Ann ual production.

Tons.

Great Britain, 1860 80,042,698

United States 14,333,922 1

British American Possessions 1,500,000 2

New South Wales 250,000

Prussia, Saxony, &c 12,000,000

Belgium 8,900,000

France 7,900,000

Russian Empire (estimated) 1,500,000

Austria 1,162,900

Spain 300,000

Japan, China, Borneo, &c. (estimated) . . 2,000,000

1 Reports respecting Coal, 1866, p. 147.

! Hull, Coal Fields of Great Britain, 2d ed. p. 29 ; and Situation de
l’Ind. &c. p. Ill, quoting a report of M. Gonot, Ing^nieur en chef des
Mines du Hainaut, 1858.

280

The Coal Question,

Of a total produce of 180 millions of tons, 96
millions are produced by nations of British origin
and language, and 80 millions are produced in
Great Britain itself

Of the chief material agent of modern civiliza-
tion, three parts out of five, or 60 per cent, are in
the use of Great Britain ; and nearly three parts
out of four, or 75 per cent, are in the use of
Anglo-Saxon nations.

The reader must form for himself, if he can,
an adequate notion of the stimulus which the
possession of such a mighty power gives to our
race.

Let us compare the amounts with the compa-
rative stores of coal existing in the several coun-
tries which have been explored. The actual
quantities of coal, indeed, are almost wholly
unknown ; we can only compare the supposed
areas of the coal-fields. This has been done by
Professor Rogers, in the following statement —

Area of Coal Lands in
square miles.

United States 196,650

British North American Possessions .... 7,530

Great Britain 5,400

France 984

Prussia 960

Belgium 510

Bohemia 400

j Edinburgh Review, vol. exi. p. 88.

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 281

Area of Coal Lands in
square miles.

Westphalia 380

Spain 200

Russia 100

Saxony 30

Such estimates indeed can pretend to no
accuracy, and the area of a coal-field is hut
slight measure of its value. We can only learn
from the statement that our English coal-fields
are many times as important as those of any
European country, but that the North American
coal-fields almost indefinitely surpass ours in
extent, and, it may be added, in contents.

Coal may also he said to exist more or less in
most other parts of the world — in India, China,
Japan, Labuan, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil,
Chili, and Central Africa. Many details con-
cerning the frequent occurrence of coal may he
found in It. C. Taylor’s “ Statistics of Coal,” 1
hut they have in reality little bearing upon our
inquiry. With the exception of the great North
American fields, none are at all capable of com-
peting in quality or extent with our coal-fields.
They will prove very useful in furnishing a
supply for local industry and steam navigation.
Upon and around each coal-field will grow up,
we hope, a prosperous community, enjoying

1 1st ed. 1848 ; 2d ed. revised by S. 0. Haldemau.

282

The Coal Question.

those uses of coal which older nations are dis-
covering ; but the only way in which those coal-
fields could interfere with, and reduce the con-
sumption of our coal would he, either by —

1. Supplying sea-board coal markets which
we now supply, or

2. Supporting a system of manufacturing in-
dustry capable of competing with ours.

Now, if the comparatively cumbersome and
heavy nature of coal he considered, it will be
seen that the cost of conveyance is a main
element. A small extent of mountainous country,
a considerable distance from a port, or a position
far from the general current of trade, removes a
coal-field from competition. Thus the French
Official Report regards the difficulty and cost of
conveyance as the great obstacle in the way
of the French coal-mines. Otherwise, without
being comparable with English fields, they are
rich enough for home consumption. 1 “ In
France the deposits of combustible mineral are
numerous, but there is only a small number
which are susceptible, either from their extension
or the quality of their products, of development
upon a great scale. Most of these basins, too,
are situated in mountainous countries, difficult

1 Situation de l’Industrie Houillcre en 1859, p. 9.

Coal Resources of Differen t Countries. 283

of access, where lines of communication have
penetrated but slowly and at great cost. This
circumstance explains why at present tbe price
of coal at market exceeds, in a very high pro-
portion, tbe wholesale price at tbe pit mouth.”
An English report expresses a similar opinion.
“ At St. Etienne, the heart of the Erench mining
district, coal can be extracted as low as in Wales,
and the expense of it throughout France is im-
puted to the absence of easy lines of carriage
and co m mum ' cation, which enable English coal
to be sold on the Erench coast at a profit.” 1
On the other hand, the favourable natural
conditions of our mines are thus described by
the writers of the Erench report : 2 —

“ England is the most favoured country of
Europe in the extent and richness of its coal-
fields. Its superiority is confirmed by the varied
and generally excellent quality of its coal, and
by a regularity of the strata very favourable to
the working of coal-mines.

“ Lastly, as if nature had striven to unite in
these coal-fields all the circumstances most con-
ducive to mining and trading in coal, the two
richest basins, those of Wales and Newcastle, are

1 Report of the South Shields Committee, 1843.

2 Situation de l’Indnstrie Houill^re en 1859, p. 15.

284

The Coal Question.

intersected by the sea. The coal- owners can
load and ship their products in the most econo-
mical manner, and thus consign them to any
point of the home or continental coasts.

“ Over-sea conveyance, too, is the more cheap,
because in English commerce the outward voyage
may be considered as a voyage in ballast, and the
return freight covers the chief part of the expenses.

“ A like union of favourable conditions does
not present itself at any other point of the globe,
and constitutes a natural privilege with which
no other country can entertain the notion of
contending as regards industry founded upon the
working and trading in coal. Auy attempt at
competition of the kind would necessarily be
followed by defeat.”

Eoreign coal-fields then are almost wholly
excluded from competition with ours as regards
sea-borne coal, because even if there were any
coal-fields comparable with ours, in intrinsic
natural advantages, there would still be wanting
the extrinsic advantages of the vast trading
system and the mercantile marine of England
capable of conveying and distributing the coal.
In a great many parts of the world, at Sydney,
Cape Breton, at Newcastle in Australia, Labuan,
Chili, Asturias in Spain, and on the coast of the

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 285

Black Sea, there are seams of coal almost abutting
on the sea, hut the set of trade and navigation in
the wrong direction enables, or rather obliges, us
to carry our coals out to these local Xeweastles.
And if coal situated actually on the sea-board
cannot drive our coal away, the high cost of land
conveyance completely removes all inland coal-
fields from direct competition with our mines in
the general sea-board coal markets of the world.

That Trench and continental mines generally
cannot possibly compete with our coal mines is fur-
ther shown in the remarks of Mr. II. C. Taylor —

“ It is due to the unrivalled accessibility by
sea to the best coal basins of England, Scotland,
and Wales — where coals of many varieties and
admirable qualities can be shipped at the very
sites where they are mined — that Great Britain
has hitherto been able to furnish such enormous
and cheap supplies, not only to the home con-
sumers, but nearly to every maritime country in
Europe. In this respect she is far more favour-
ably circumstanced than her rival continental
producers, Erance, Belgium, Prussia, and Austria,
whose coal-fields lie remote from the sea-shore.

“ Erom Dunkirk to Bayonne, an extent of 300

i Statistics of Coal, 1st ed. p. 275, quoted by the Edinburgh Rivieu\
vol. xc. p. 534.

286

The Coal Question,

leagues of coast, there are but two coal-fields,
and those are at some distance from the sea. In
regard also to the quality of the coal, France is
less fortunate than England; for with the excep-
tion of the basins of Anzin, St. Etienne, and a
few others, the collieries of the interior yield hut
an inferior species of fuel. Both these circum-
stances combine to render France, to a certain
extent, dependent upon Great Britain for the
better sorts of coal ; and hence the French
Government annually make large and increasing
contracts for the delivery of English coal at their
depdts, for the use of their steam marine on
service. The incapability of Belgium, with her
increasing domestic consumption, and in view of
her diminished powers of production, and the
remoteness of her coal-fields from the seaports,
to supply the steam navy of France with any
material portion of its regular fuel, is perfectly

well understood

“ The manner in which the coal-tracts of Great
Britain are distributed, is fortunately such that
every coal-field in England and Wales can meet
the next adjoining coal-field nearly on a radius
of thirty miles, thus forming such a range of
deposits, from Scotland to South Wales and
Somersetshire, that the whole interior of the

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 287

country can be supplied with coals, through the
railroad system, from several central points.”

So long then as the currents of trade and navi-
gation continue in their present general course,
there are no coal-fields capable of competing with
and reducing the demand for our coal in regard
to the over-sea coal-trade. The only other way in
which a foreign coal-field could affect the pros-
perity of our coal-consuming industry would be
by nourishing abroad great systems of manufac-
turing industry capable of withdrawing from us
a part of the custom of the world which we now
enjoy as regards coal-made articles almost to the
extent of a monopoly.

If there were plenty of good coal in France,
such a system of iron and coal industry might
rise upon it as at any rate to deprive us of the
custom of French consumers. Strange to say,
this result has taken place to some extent. The
good order and enlightened commercial policy of
the Imperial Government has had such an extra-
ordinary effect upon French industry, that the
produce of coal from the interior French mines
has advanced at the rate of G'7 per cent, per
annum— at nearly double the rate of increase of
our consumption of coal. The French iron
manufacture has advanced in a manner equally

288

The Coal Question.

surprising, so that instances are not uncommon
now of English orders for iron goods being exe-
cuted in Erance ! And it is no doubt owing to
this advance of Erench industry in a manner
parallel to our own, that the Erench treaty of
commerce has had much less remarkable results
than was expected. Even the imports of coal
into Erance have remained stationary, as seen in
the following accounts : —

Coal raised in Coal Coal consumed

France. imported. in France.

Tons. Tons. Tons.

I860 . . 7,900,000 . . 5,900,000 . . 13,800,000'

1862 . . 9,400,000 . . 5,900,000 . . 15,300,000“

The natural riches and skill of the Erench are,
however, so comparatively higher in many other
branches of industry, that it cannot be supposed
the competition of their coal industry can proceed
far, or prove permanent and formidable.

The extraction of coal in Belgium, again, has
been increasing at the rate of 2 7 per cent, per
annum, as seen in the following accounts of the

extraction : —

Tons.

1854 7,950,000

1859 9,160,702

1862 9,935,645

1863 10,345,000

But the Belgian coal-proprietors are afraid that

1 Situation de l’Industrie Houilluro, p. 7.

2 Journal of Science, No. 2, pp. 337, 338.

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 289

the produce of their mines has nearly reached
its maximum. The fact is that the Belgian mines
have been worked longer than our Newcastle
mines, and have reached still greater depths.
They are further advanced towards exhaustion
than our own ; and as their produce is not one-
eighth part of our coal-produce, it w'ould he absurd
to suppose that they can support any industry
capable of seriously competing -with ours.

Prussia, by its somewhat inland position, as
well as for other reasons, is also incapable of
taking any considerable share of the trade of the
world, and no other European country has coal
mines worth consideration here.

It is only when we turn to North America that
we meet a country capable of comparing in coal
resources with our own, and the future of Eng-
land greatly depends therefore upon the future of
America. The areas of American and British
coal-fields have already been compared, and the
current statement is sufficiently true, that the
American fields exceed ours as 37 to 1.

Canada, indeed, is devoid of any trace of the
coal-measures, and presents a remarkable contrast
to the regions by which it is surrounded. The
British American Provinces of Newfoundland,
New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia contain the

u

290

The Coal Question.

North-easterly extensions of the great American
fields. But so far as yet known the coal-measures
are here more interesting to the geologist than to
the economist. Their area is very considerable,
and the seams are numerous, but are spread
through masses of strata many thousand feet in
thickness. Thus the Cumberland coal-field in
Nova Scotia, according to Prof. Rogers, lias an
area of 6,889 square miles, exceeding the whole
area of British coal-fields. But the greater por-
tion consists of the lower and upper carboniferous
strata, destitute of valuable coal-seams. The
thickness of the whole series of rocks is not less
than 14,570 feet. 1 The Sydney coal-field with an
area of 250 square miles, and a thickness of about
10,000 feet of strata, is of more present import-
ance, since four seams of workable coal crop
out at Sydney Harbour, and are easily avail-
able for an export trade so far as shipping can
be had.

It is, however, the basin of the Mississippi
which contains the main mass of productive
coal-measures. There is reason to suppose that
the carboniferous formation was originally spread
in one continuous sheet over the whole of Central
America, from the flanks of the Itocky Mountains

1 Coal-Fields of Great Britain, 2d ed. p. 208.

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 291

to the shores of the North Atlantic, and from
the Gulf of Mexico to Newfoundland. Large
portions must have heen removed by denudation,
hut enough remains in five distinct fields of which
the areas are thus stated hy Prof. Pogers :

Length.

Breadth.

Area.

Basin.

Miles.

Miles.

Miles.

Appalachian

fc>75 .

. 180 .

55,500

Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky .

370 .

. 200 .

. 51,100

Missouri and Arkansas . . .

550 .

. 200 .

. 73-913

Michigan

160 .

. 125 .

. 13,350

160 .

3,000

Total area, 1.96,863 square miles.

The Appalachian field is of the highest eco-
nomic importance. On the eastward it has heen
crumpled up into the series of ranges forming
the Alleghany Mountains. At the same time
the bituminous portion of the coal has heen
more or less distilled off, producing the anthra-
cite coal of Mauch Chunk and the other Eastern
Pennsylvanian mines. The seams of coal, how-
ever, retain their bituminous character and their
horizontal position on the west of the Alleghany
Mountains. “ In that less elevated country, the
coal-measures are intersected by three great navi-
gable rivers, and are capable of supplying for
ages, to the inhabitants of a densely-peopled
region, an inexhaustible supply of fuel. These
rivers are the Monongahela, the Alleghany, and
the Ohio, all of which lay open on their banks

292

The Coal Question.

the level seams of coal. Looking down the first-
of these at Brownsville, we have a fine view of
the main seam of bituminous coal ten feet thick,
commonly called the Pittsburg seam, breaking
out in the steep cliff at the water’s edge. . . .
Horizontal galleries may he driven everywhere
at very slight expense, and so worked as to drain
themselves ; while the cars, laden with coal and
attached to each other, glide down on a railway,
so as to deliver their burden into barges moored
to the river’s bank. The same seam is seen at
a distance, on the right bank, and may be followed
the whole way to Pittsburg, fifty miles distant.
As it is nearly horizontal while the river descends,
it crops out at a continually increasing, but
never at an inconvenient, height above the
Monongahela. Below the great bed of coal at
Brownsville is a fire-clay eighteen inches thick ;
and below this, several beds of limestone, below
which again are other coal seams. I have also
shown in my sketch another layer of workable
coal, which breaks out on the slope of the hills
at a greater height. Here almost every pro-
prietor can open a coal-pit on his own land, and
the stratification being very regular, he may
calculate with precision the deptli at which coal
may be won.” 1

1 Lyell, Manual of Elemental')’ Geology, 1852, p. 333.

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 293

The Appalachian coal-field, of which these
strata form a part, is remarkable for its vast
area. According to Professor H. D. Kogers, it
stretches continuously from X.E. to S.W. for a
distance of 720 miles, its greatest width being
about 180 miles. On a moderate estimate its
superficial area amounts to 63,000 square
miles.

We have no extensive seams of coal now which
can compare in ease of working with those above
described The “ thick coal ” of Staffordshire
almost within the memory of those now living
might be comparable, and four or five centuries
ago it is supposed there were seams on the hank
of the Tyne, and at Whitehaven, which could he
worked by natural drainage, and with the greatest
ease. But shallow coal has necessarily almost
disappeared in England. The consequence is
that we cannot now produce coal, even with the
aid of the best engineering skill, and of abundant
trained labour, nearly so cheap as it can he had
on the hanks of the Ohio. At Pittsburg the
best bituminous coal may be had at one-half, or
one-tliird the general price at. European mines,
as shown in the following comparative table of
prices at the pit d —

1 Overman, On the Manufacture of Iron, p. 102.

294

The Coal Question.

s. d. s. d.

France . 6 0 to 14 0

Germany 7 0 „ 10 0

England 6 0 „ 10 0

Pennsylvania (anthracite) .80,, 90

Pittsburg (bituminous) . . 2 0 „ 4 0

In short, on the Western coal-fields coal can
he obtained at the expense of digging it ; that is,
at a cost of a cent or a cent and a quarter per
bushel. 1

Beyond the reach of doubt there is no portion
of the earth’s surface so naturally fitted for be-
coming the seat of great industries. “ What is
the value, it may he asked,” in the words of an
American writer, 2 “ of 63,000 square miles of
country, which yields coal, iron, oil, and salt,
beneath its fertile soil ? . Here are the elements
of strength, heat, light, food, and the giant steam,
opened at once to the science, skill, and untiring
energy of an enterprising people.”

It can excite no surprise that a people of
British extraction, endowed with the absolute
possession of lands so rich, so extensive, and so
easily accessible as those of the United States,
should spread and multiply. It is nature in its
kindest and most liberal mood that has chiefly
contributed to the growth of the United States.

1 Overman, On the Manufacture of Iron, p. 402.

2 Gesner, Practical Treatise on Coal, Petroleum, &c. New York,
1861, p. 30.

Coal ’Resources of Different Countries. 295

And a certain remarkable talent for the appli-
cation and invention of all practical devices for
saving labour and overcoming obstacles is the
next chief attribute of the American nation that
concerns us here. The moral and political charac-
teristics of that people, and the influence they
may exert for good or for evil upon the world,
are not here in question.

But why does not such wonderful wealth in
coal affect our prosperity already, if so much
depends upon the price of coal ? It is because
America has not and cannot for a long period
reach that state of industrial development in
which a great system of manufactures naturally
grows up. Great as is the wealth of coal, the
wealth of land is comparatively to European
countries, greater still ; and agriculture has, and
should have the natural preference over manu-
factures. Nor has America long emerged from
that earlier stage of the iron manufacture in
which timber is the best fuel. Coal-smelting
furnaces in the United States have not existed
more than thirty years. And the future relation
of American coal to English industry cannot be
better expressed than in the words of the very
able Report of the South Shields Commitee on
Coal Mines, in the year 1848.

296

The Coal Question.

“It is not the want of coal, but of capital and
of labour that allows the more cheaply wrought
British mineral to seal up the American mines.
It is within the range of possibility to reverse it.

“ When the expense of working British coal
mines leaves no remuneration to the capital and
labour employed, when brought into competition
with the mines of other countries, then will they
be as effectually lost to Britain for purposes of
ascendency, and their produce as exports, as if
no longer in physical existence ; and her supe-
riority in the mechanical arts and manufactures,
cceteris paribus, it may well be feared, will be
superseded.”

Of the Iron Trade.

297

CHAPTER XV.

OF THE IEOH TIIADE.

Soloh said well to Croesus, when in ostentation
he showed him his gold, “ Sir, if any other
come that hath better iron than you, he will be
master of all this gold .” 1 And it will hardly be
denied that the retention of our supremacy in the
production and working of iron is a critical point
ot' our future history. Most of ‘those works and
inventions in which we are pre-eminent, depend
upon the use of iron in novel modes and magni-
tudes. Hoads, bridges, engines, vessels, are more
and more formed of this invaluable metal. And
it was well remarked by "Wilberforce in opposing
an intended tax upon Aon, that “ the possession
of iron was one of the great grounds of distine-
t ion between civilized and barbarous society ; and
in the same proportion that this country had
improved in manufactures and civilization, the
manufacture of iron had been extended and

1 Bacon.

298

The Coal Question.

improved, and found its way by numerous mean-
dering streams into every department of civil
life .” 1

As our iron-furnaces are a chief source of our
power in the present, their voracious consump-
tion of coal is most threatening as regards the
future. Though iron is only one of the many
products of coal, the making and working of iron
demands at present between one-fourth and one-,
third of our whole yield of coal, and the iron
trade certainly offers the widest field for a future
increase of consumption. We have seen that for
a century our produce of iron has grown at a
constant rate , 2 and the pre-eminent usefulness of
iron places it beside coal and corn as a material
of which there cannot be too much — which itself
excites and supports population, offering it the
means of constant multiplication.

But it is essentially a suicidal trade -in a national
point of view. Once already, in an earlier period
of iron metallurgy, the iron trade exhausted our
resources, and quitted our shores. Its absence
contributed to produce that dull and unpro-
gressivc period in the early part of last century
which is so strongly marked upon our annals.

The former vicissitudes of the iron trade are

' Hansard’s Debates, vol. vii. p. 79. 2 See pp. 217— H.

Of the Iron Trade.

299

of a very instructive character. There are two
natural periods in the history of the iron manu-
facture — the charcoal period and the coal period.
We require antiquarian writers like Mr. Nichols,
Mr. Lower, or Mr. Smiles, to remind us of the
very existence of a considerable manufacture of
charcoal iron in England in former centuries.
It is now so utterly a thing of the past, that
only two or three furnaces are kept in work at
any one time . 1

Until the middle of last century, however, iron
was always made with charcoal, and a woody
country was necessarily its seat. Coal or cole
was then the common name for charcoal, pit-coal
being distinguished as sea-coal. The cottier or
cottyer was the labourer who cut the timber,
stacked it in heaps, charked it, and conveyed the
coal on pack-horses to the iron btoomary and
forge, situated in some neighbouring valley,
where a stream of water gave motion to the
bellows and the tilt-hammer.

The ore or mine was also brought by pack-
horse from some neighbouring mine or deposit —
for there are few geological formations or dis-

1 Nervland and Backbarrow in Lancashire, Duddon in Cumberland,
and Loon in Scotland, are the only charcoal furnaces in the United
Kingdom. Mineral Statistics, ISO:?. p. 70.

300

The Coal Question.

tricts of this country which do not yield iron ore.
Often the mine used was derived from heaps of
old slag or offal, the refuse of still earlier iron
works. For in a previous age, even the use of
water-power was unknown, and the furnace was
blown by ih.Q foot-blast, double bellows alternately
pressed by a man as he stepped from one to. the
other. The low heat thus obtained was not
capable of half withdrawing the metal from its
matrix. The thousands of tons of cinder, and
slag — “old man,” as it is locally called — left by
the Eomans, for the most part, as the included
coins and antiquities prove, on the Forest of
Dean, the Weald of Sussex, or the Cleveland
Hills, were long a source of wonder and profit to
the manufacturers of a later period.

Here w r e see a curious instance of the reaction
and mutual dependence of the arts. The use of
water-power, by giving a blast and heat of
greater intensity, raised the iron manufacture
to a new efficiency, but it could not enable us to
use coal in smelting iron. It was the advance
of the art of ironwvorldng and its special ap-
plication in the steam-engine that gave us the
blowing-engine, and coal-blast furnace, which
contributed in a main degree to our commercial
resuscitation and our present strong position.

Of the Iron Trade.

301

It was in the 17th century that the charcoal
iron manufacture most flourished in England,
and its chief seat was Sussex. “ I have heard,”
says Norden in his Surveyor’s Dialogue, “that
there are, or recently were in Sussex neere 110
hammers and furnaces for iron.” And Camden
says of Sussex, 1 “ Eull of iron-mines it is in
sundry places, where, for the making and found-
ing thereof, there he furnaces on every side, and
a huge deal of wood is yearly burnt ; to which
pm-pose divers brooks in many places are brought
to run into one channel, and sundry meadows
turned into pools and waters, that they may be
of power sufficient to drive hammer -mills, which
beating upon the iron, resound all over the
places adjoining.”

The increase of the trade threatened to denude
England of the forests which were considered an
ornament to the country, as well as essential to
its security, as providing the oak timber for our
navy. Poets and statesmen agreed in condemn-
ing the encroachments of the ironmasters.

“ These iron times breed none that mind posterity” —

1 Quoted by M. A. Lower. Contributions to Literature, 1854,

p. 120.

302 The Coed Question.

says Drayton. And George Withers in 163J. 1
speaks of —

“ The havoc and the spoyle,

Which, even within the measure of my days,

Is made through every quarter of this Isle —

In woods and groves which were this kingdom’s praise.”

Stowe at the same period clearly describes the
growing scarcity of wood-fuel, the falsification
of previous anticipations, and the necessity felt
for resorting more and more to coal.

“ Such hath bene the plenty of wood in Eng-
land for all uses that within man’s memory it
was held impossible to have any want of wood in
England, but contrary to former imaginations
such hath bene the great expense of timber for
navigation ; with infinite increase of building of
houses, with the great expense of wood to make
household furniture, casks, and other vessels not
to he numbered, and of carts, waggons, and
coaches; besides the extreme waste of wood in
making iron, burning of bricks and tiles,” &c.

“ At this present, through the great consuming
of wood as aforesaid, there is so great a scarcity
of wood throughout the whole kingdom, that
not only the city of London, all haven towns,
and in very many parts within the land, the

1 Quoted by Smiles. Lives of the Engineers, vol. i. p. 292.

Of the Iron Trade. 303

inhabitants in general are constrained to make
tlieir fires of sea-coal, or pit-coal, even in the
chambers of honourable personages ; and through
necessity, which is the mother of all arts, they
have of very late years devised the making of
iron, the making of all sorts of glass, burning of
bricks, with sea-coal or pit-coal. Within thirty
years last, the nice dames of London would not
come into any house, or room, where sea-coals
were burned, nor willingly eat of the meat that
was either sod or roasted with sea-coal fire.” 1
Korden says, “He that well observes it and
hath knowne the welds of Susses, Surrey, and
Kent, the grand nursery of those kind of trees,
especially oke and beech, shall find an alteration
Avithin lesse than thirty years, as may well strike
a feare, lest few yeares more, as pestilent as the
former, will leaA r e few goode trees standing in
these welds. Such a heat issueth out of the
many forges, and furnaces, for the making of
yron, and out of the glasse kilnes, as hath
devoured many famous Avoods within the Avelds.” 2
Evelyn in his Diary, deploring the fall of a
fine oak, expresses “ a deep execration of iron
mills, and I had almost sayd ironmasters too.”

1 Stowe's Annals, 1032, p. 1025,

- Surveyors Dialogue, p. 175.

304 The Coal Question.

It was against those “ voracious iron-works ”
that statutes of the 1st and 27th years of Eliza-
beth were directed, to prevent the destruction
of timber trees which were necessary to maintain
the wooden walls and maritime power of Eng-
land. But in spite of statutes the waste went
on. Postlethwayt writing in 1766, says, 1 “The
waste and destruction that has been of the woods
in Warwick, Stafford, Worcester, Hereford, Mon-
mouth, Gloucester, Glamorgan, Pembroke, Shrop-
shire, and Sussex, by the iron-works, is not to be
imagined. The scarcity of wood is thereby al-
ready grown so great, that where cord wood has
been sold at five or six shillings per cord, within
these few years it is now risen to upwards of
twelve or fourteen shillings, and in some places
is all consumed. And if some care is not taken
to preserve our timber from these consuming
furnaces, we shall certainly soon stand in need
of oak to supply the royal navy, and also ship-
ping for the use of the merchants, to the great
discouragement of shipbuilding and navigation,
upon which the safety and figure of these king-
doms, as a maritime power, depend.”

N ow, I particularly beg attention to the curkras
fact that about the end of the 17th century, the
1 Commercial Dictionary, Art. Coal.

Of the Iron Trade.

305

iron manufacture to some extent migrated to
Ireland. The woods of that country were full
of timber when those of England were nearly
exhausted. The trade at once followed the fuel
in spite of a want of ore in Ireland. As appears
in tables of Irish exports, and in Sir E. Brewster’s
Hew Essays on Trade, 1 of the year 1702, Ireland
became an iron exporting country. Sir William
Temple says, 2 “ Iron seems to me the manu-
facture that of all others ought the least to be
encouraged in Ireland ; or if it be, which re-
quires the most restriction to certain places and
rules. Eor I do not remember to have heard
that there is any ore in Ireland, at least I am
sure that the greatest part is fetched from Eng-
land ; so that all this country affords of its own
growth towards this manufacture, is but the
wood, which has met but with too great con-
sumptions already in most parts of this kingdom,
and needs not this to destroy what is left. So
that Iron-works ought to be confined to certain
places, where either the woods continue vast,
and make the country savage ; or where they are
not at all fit for timber, or likely to grow to it ;
or where there is no conveyance for timber to

1 Pp. 94, &c.

2 Essay upon the Advancement nt’ Trade in Ireland, Works, 1720,
vol. i. p. 1 19.

X

306 The Goal Question.

places of vent, so as to quit the cost of the
carriage.”

Postlethwayt alludes to the migration of the
manufacture and the necessary result. “It is
generally allowed that within about these seventy
years, Ireland was better stored with oak-timber
than England ; but several gentlemen from hence,
as well as those residing there, set up iron-works,
which in a few years swept away the wood to
that degree, that they have had even a scarcity
of small stuff to produce bark for their tanning,
nor scarce timber for their common and necessary
uses.”

When Ireland was in a condition to compete
with England in a given manufacture, no arti-
ficial encouragement was needed. Erequent
attempts on the other hand were made to gain a
supply of iron from our American plantations.
“Certainly,” as Evelyn remarked, “the goodly
rivers and forests of the other world would much
better become our iron and saw-mills, than these
exhausted countries, and we prove gainers by
the timely removal.” But perhaps from the
want of labour American iron could not compete
with continental iron.

England had for a length of time made and
used much iron. “The Eorest of Beane,” says

Of the Iron Trade.

307

Yarranton, “ is, as to tlie iron, to be compared
to the sheep’s back as to the woollen ; nothing
being of more advantage to England than these
two are.” And the Commanders of the Spanish
Armada are said to have had especial orders to
destroy the Forest of Fean, as being a main
source of England’s strength. And though coal
could not yet be used in the smelting-furnace, it
had long been chiefly used in the finery, the
chafery, and the blacksmith’s hearth. A great
portion of the coal and culm that had for
centuries been exported to France, and the
coasts of the Northern Sea, was used in the
smithy. And it was undoubtedly the abundance
of coal that reared from early times the iron-
working arts at Sheffield, Dudley, and Bir-
mingham.

When our home production of iron was rapidly
failing, there was a considerable demand for
foreign iron in England. Hewitt, in his Statistics-
of the Iron Trade, 1 after expressing His surprise
that in 1710 the total produce of England was
only 17,350 tons, made in 59 furnaces, adds his
conviction that the total production of Europe at
the time did not exceed 100,000 tons, of which

1 Statistics and Geography of the Production of Iron : New York,
1856, p. 7.

x 2

308

The Coal Question.

60,000 were made in tlie forest countries of
Sweden, Norway, and Russia. One half of this
was imported into England. The consumption
of iron in England, he thinks, was 15 lbs. per
head of the population ; while in Europe, on the
average, it did not exceed 2 lbs. Of the iron we
used, four-fifths were considered to be imported
from one country or another. J oshua Gee speaks
of our market as “the most considerable in
Europe for the vast consumption of iron,” and
represents the Swedes, Danes, and Russians as
striving to gain our market. 1 Our production of
iron by the middle of the century was believed to
have declined to one-tenth paid of its former
amount, and the high cost of foreign iron formed
the main check upon the progress of those "arts
which were to be so great. By this time the
substitution of coal for charcoal had become a
necessity. Postlethwayt, in a pamphlet possessed
by the Statistical Society, 2 describes the condition
of the iron-trade in 1747, remarking that “ Eng-
land not being so woody a country as either
Sweden or Russia, we do not abound, nor ever
shall, with a sufficiency of wood-coal and that

1 Trade and Navigation of Great Britain, 1738, p. 104.

a Considerations on the making of Bar Iron with Pit or Sea Coal
Fire, 1747,

Of the Iron Trade.

309

as cord wood was doubled, or trebled in price, six
or eight times dearer than pit-coal, and very dear
compared with its price in foreign iron-making
countries, it was no wonder home-made iron
decreased. This scarcity of wood was really due
of course to the superior profits to be derived
from using the land as pasture. X orden allowed
this a century before : “ The cleansing of many
of these welde grounds hath redounded rather to
the benefite than to the hurte of the countrey :
for where woods did growe in superfluous abun-
dance there was lacke of pasture for kine, and
of arable land for corne.”

And Houghton had acutely anticipated the
subsequent course of things by suggesting that
it would be profitable to cut down all wood
near navigable waters where coal could be had,
of which he remarked we had, enough . 1

To make iron with pit-coal was the great
problem, the practical solution of which was all-
important to the nation.

It was no new notion. From the early part of
the seventeenth century it had been the object of
eager experiments, and the cause of ruin to many
of the experimenters. The history of the estab-

1 Houghton’s Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Hus-
bandry and Trade, 1727-1738, vol. iv. p. 259.

310

The Coed Question.

lishment of our great iron trade lias been de-
scribed in the works of Mr. Smiles, Dr. Percy,
and others, but it possesses points of interest
which we cannot pass over.

Simon Sturtevant, a German metallurgist,
about 1612, was the first to take out a patent for
making iron with pit-coal. His specification of
the invention, entitled “ A Treatise of Metallica,”
is an eccentric but clever production. In the
practical part of his work he seems to have had
less success than in the literary ; and others who
followed up his notions — mostly Dutchmen and
Germans, such as llovenson, Jorden, Tranche,
and Sir Phillibert Vernalt — had no more success.

The following verses of the year 1633 quaintly
allude to such attempts : —

“The yron mills are excellent for that ;

I have a patent draune to that effect ;

If they goe up, downc gue the goodly trees.

I’ll make them search the earth to find new fire.” 1

It was Dud Dudley, a natural son of Lord
Dudley, of Dudley Castle, manager of his
father’s iron forges in the neighbourhood, who,
in 1621, first succeeded in smelting iron with
coal. According to his own account in his
“ Metallum Martis,” he made considerable quan-

1 The CostJie Whore, quoted by Percy, Metallurgy of Iron and
Steel, p. M4.

Of the Iron Trade.

311

titles of pit-coal iron at Cradley, Pensnet, Himley,
and Sedgley. But various disasters and troubles,
the jealousy of other iron-masters, and the civil
strife of the time, frustrated all Iris undertakings,
and left him a ruined man. His history may he
read in his own work, or in Mr. Smiles’ “ In-
dustrial Biography.”

Dudley’s invention, it would seem probable,
depended upon charging or coking the coal, in
a manner analogous to the making of wood char-
coal. The coke thus prepared was comparatively
free from sulphur, and more readily gave a strong
heat. Dudley was thus able, according to his
own account, to make five or seven tons of iron
a week ; selling his pig-iron at 4 /. per ton, and
his bar-iron at 12/., while charcoal iron cost in
pigs 6/. or *11., and in bars 15/. or 18/. He relied
for commercial success upon the cheapness of his
iron compared with its fair quality, and he ex-
presses clearly the true inducing cause and
purpose of his invention, “ knowing that if there
could be any use made of the small-coales that
are of little use, then would they be drawn out
of the Pits, which coles produceth oftentimes
great prejudice unto the owners of the works
and the work itself, and also unto the colliers.” 1

1 Motalhun Mortis, London, 1665, p.

312

The Coal Question.

The almost gratuitous use of fuel thus alluded
to obviously led to Dudley’s remarkable efforts
towards our great manufacture. After Dudley’s
misfortunes his invention was not followed up.
The want of wood was not yet severely felt, and
the owners of woodland country and iron forges,
of course, considered their interest in the char-
coal iron manufacture as one to he protected.
When Dr. Plot wrote his curious “Natural
History of Staffordshire,” the making of pit-
coal iron was a matter of unfortunate history,
and he speaks of a certain German, Dr. Dlewstone,
as making “ the last effort in that country to
smelt iron ore with pit-coal .” 1

Thus the matter rested for half a century.
The iron trade, which Andrew Yarranton, about
this time, truly designated the keystone of
England’s industrial prosperity, was checked by
the high and rising price of the metal ; and the
efforts made to get iron from Ireland, or the
Transatlantic Plantations, had hut a slight or
temporary success.

It was Abraham Darby who revived the for-
gotten method of smelting with pit-coal. The
earliest adventurers in the process, we have seen,
were Germans, and it is curious that the success

1 Smiles’ Industrial Biography, p. 77.

313

Of the Iron Trade.

of the Darby family was founded upon foreign
experience. The eldest Abraham Darby went
over to Holland in 1706, and learnt the method
of casting hollow iron pots, or Hilton ware, as it
was then called. Bringing over skilled Dutch
workmen, he took out a patent to protect his
newly-acquired process, and then, in 1709, started
the celebrated Coalbrookdale Works in Shrop-
shire. At first the oak and hazel woods furnished
fuel, hut the supply presently proving insufficient
for the growing trade, it became customary to
mix coke and brays, or small coke with the
charge of fuel. Eventually, when an increased
blast was obtained, coke took the place of
charcoal entirely.

There is much uncertainty and discrepancy
concerning the history of the Coalbrookdale
Works. Scrivenor, in his “ History of the Iron
Trade,” represents pit-coal as used in 1713.
Dr. Percy, on the other hand, describes the
younger Abraham Darby as first employing raw
coal in the smelting furnace between the years
1730 and 1735.

In his first successful experiment he is said
to have watched the filling of his furnace for six
days and nights uninterruptedly, falling into a
deep sleep when he saw the molten iron running

314

The Coed Question.

forth. The success of the work was probably
secured by the erection of a wa.ter-wlieel of
twenty -four feet diameter, capable of giving a
powerful blast. But water was scarce, and a
fire-engine, or old atmospheric steam-engine, was
set up to pump back the water from the lower to
the upper mill-pond. Here is one of those
significant instances which teach us the power
of coal and the interdependence of the arts. Em-
ployed in this engine as a source of motive
power, it enabled coal to be also used in the
smelting-furnace. And this is typical of the iron
trade, as it is of other trades to the present day ;
for our iron industry in all its developments is
as dependent on coal for motive power as for
fuel in the furnace.

In December, 1756, we find the works “at the
top pinnacle of prosperity, twenty or twenty-two
tons per week, and sold off as fast as made, at
profit enough.” And from this time and from
this success arose England’s material power. To
this invention, says McCulloch, “ this country
owes more perhaps than to any one else.” 1

The subsequent history of the iron trade is
best to be read in the growth of its produce.
Already in 1788 the produce had risen to 68,300

1 Literature of Political Economy, p. 238.

Of the Iron Trade.

315

tons, and the increase has since proceeded, as we
have seen, in a nearly constant rate of multipli-
cation. 1

The chief difficulty experienced in the extension
of the trade was the want of motive power.
Thus Mr. J. Cookson introduced the coal iron
manufacture into the ^Newcastle district, the
blast being worked by a water-wheel on Chester
Bum. But “ frequent interruption for want of
water to drive their wheel, led at length to the
furnace being ‘ gobbed,’ and ultimately aban-
doned, about the close of the last century.” 2

Roebuck originated the great iron trade of
Scotland, and his success was due to the com-
mand of a good blast.

“Dr. Roebuck was one of the first to employ
coal in iron-smelting on a large scale, and for
that purpose he required the aid of the most
powerful blowing apparatus that could be pro-
cured. Mr. Smeaton succeeded in contriving
and fixing for him, about the year 1768, a highly
effective machine of this kind, driven by a water-
wheel.” 3 This contrivance is said to have been
the blowing cylinder now used. 4

1 Chapter xi.

2 Report of the British Association, 1863, p. 738.

11 Smiles’ Engineers, vol. ii. p. 61.

4 Percy's Metallurgy, Iron, p. 889.

316

The Goal Question.

Wilkinson was another great promoter of the
iron manufacture, and his success arose from
applying the steam-engine directly to work the
blast-engine of his furnace near Bilston in
Staffordshire . 1

Cort’s improvements in the puddling, faggot-
ing, and rolling of iron blooms followed. The
extensive use of such improvements depends
upon the use of coal as the only fuel sufficiently
abundant for the puddling, or reheating furnaces,
and to supply the enormous power required in
rolling iron bars of large size.

The discovery of the hot-hlast process by Mr.
Neilson is the next great step, and one of the
most surprising instances of economy in the
history of the Arts. Ironmasters had previously
adhered to the mistaken notion that a very cool
blast was essential to making good iron, and
some even tried the use of ice in cooling the air
of the blast. But when a blast of air, hot enough
to melt lead, was used instead, the consumption
of coal per ton of cast iron made, was reduced
from seven tons to two, or two and a half tons.
But was this enormous saving equivalent to a
decrease of consumption ? The produce of pig
iron in Scotland has increased as follows : —

1 History of Wednesbury, p. lift.

Of the Iron Trade.

317

Year. Tons.

1820 20,000

1830 37,500

1839 200,000

1851 775,000

1863 1,160,000

Now, if we compare the consumption of coal in
1830 and 1863, we find —

37,500 X 7 tons = 262,500 tons of coal.

1,160,000 X 2 tons = 2,320,000 „

Or the consumption of coal was increased tenfold,
not to speak of the consumption of coal in
puddling or working the iron, or in the machine
industry which cheap iron promotes.

A subsequent step of economy has been the
utilization of the waste gases of the blast-furnace
in heating the blast, or the boilers of the steam-
engines which drive the blast-engine. This im-
provement, however, was adopted extensively on
the Continent, and in the United States, before
it was introduced here in 1845. Now it is ap-
plied in South Wales, Scotland, and Derbyshire
with perfect success. 1 *

The most recent, and one of the most ingenious
improvements of the iron manufacture, that of
Mr. Bessemer, needs only a brief notice. At

1 II. Blackwell, Iron-making Resources of the United Kingdom,
1852, p. 174.

318

The Coal Question.

present, indeed, tlie process is but half completed,
because the stream of air forced through the
molten cast-iron is found to remove only the
carbon and the silicon, leaving the injurious
elements, sulphur and phosphorus, nearly un-
touched . 1 It is, therefore, necessary to use, in
the making of Bessemer steel, ores which are
free from impurities, and the price of the steel
must remain high. But if Mr. Bessemer could
remove the phosphorus also, and make all our
poor iron into good steel, the invention would be
one of those modes of economy which, in re-
ducing the cost of a most valuable material, lead
to an indefinite demand. It would, indeed, be
one of the greatest advances in the arts ever
achieved. Such are the wonderful qualities of
steel, that if it were cheap enough, its uses would
be infinite. Our engines, machines, vessels, rail-
roads, conveyances, furniture would all be made
of it, with an immense improvement in strength,
durability, and lightness. Our whole industry
would be thrown into a new state of progress.
It would be like a repetition of that substitution
of iron for wood, in mill work, which Brindley,
and Smeaton, and Bennie brought about. And
by still further multiplying the value of our coal

i Percy h Metallurgy of Ivon and .Steel, ]>. si 7.

Of the Iron Trade. 319

and iron resources, it would accelerate alike our
present growth, and the future exhaustion of our
resources.

When we reflect upon the conditions of our
great production of iron, we shall see them to
consist, apart from the ingenuity and per-
severance which gave us the inventions, in the
following : —

1. Cheapness and excellence of fuel.

2. Proximity of fuel, ores, and fluxes.

Of the first little need here he said. It will
be remembered that the first success of Dudley
was obtained in the neighbourhood of the
“Thick coal,” where up to the end of last
century coal was a “ drug ; ” and almost the
same may be said of Coalbrookdale, where the
final success was attained. And now, whether
in South Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire, Stafford-
shire, or Northumberland, the iron manufacture
most flourishes where suitable coal is to be. had
at the lowest rate.

As regards the second condition, it has been
the constant reflection of English writers that
the co-existence of the materials of the iron-
manufacture was not undesigned. “ The occur-
rence of this most useful of metals, in immediate

320

The Coal Question.

connexion with the fuel requisite for its reduc-
tion, and the limestone which facilitates that
reduction, is an instance of arrangement so
happily suited to the purposes of human industry,
that it can hardly he considered as recurring
unnecessarily to final causes, if we conceive that
this distribution of the rude materials of the
earth was determined with a view to the con-
venience of its inhabitants.” In South Wales,
Staffordshire, and elsewhere, there are often
found in conjunction the coal, ironstone, lime-
stone flux, as well as the refractory clay and
gritstone necessary for the construction of the
furnaces. The fact, however, is, that this is
rapidly becoming an imaginary condition of our
trade. The exhaustion of the ironstone seams
in some places, the cost of working them in
others, the increased facilities of transport hv
rail, new discoveries of superior ore, are rendering
our iron-works more and more dependent on dis-
tant supplies of ore. Scrivenor says, “ The great
superiority of our iron manufacture has generally
been considered (independently of the excellent
quality of the coal) to consist in having all the
materials necessary to the manufacture found on,
or immediately in the neighbourhood of the very
spot where the furnaces are erected. South

Of the Iron Trade,

321

Staffordshire, as it teas, will serve to illustrate
this point — abundance of good coal — amongst
other seams that of the tenyard — excellent iron-
stone and limestone ; this last from Dudley ;
celebrated for its beautiful fossil slabs ; hut now r
limestone- is brought from the vale of Llangollen,
and the ironmasters are looking to Northampton-
shire and other places to assist them with the
required supply of ironstone. Is not this, as
regards South Staffordshire, the beginning of an
ena l ?

“This scarcity of materials is certainly most
beneficial to districts where, from the want of
coal, it was never contemplated having any
share in the manufacture of iron ; but it alters
the general character of the circumstances under
which we have been accustomed to view our
superiority, and casts the first shadow upon
the iron trade.” 1

Blackwell, in his lecture on the Iron Resources
of Britain, although asserting that “ in no other
countries does this proximity of ore and fuel
exist to the same extent as in England ,” 3 de-
scribes how the facilities of transport are deve-
loping a new system. The iron trade, he says,
fosters itself by its own creation, the railroad -

i Scrivenor on the Iron Trade, p. 301. -- Page 150.

322 The Coal Question.

It is by this that the new-discovered or rather
the re-discovered ores in the oolitic formation,
stretching obliquely across England, are made
available, saving the North of England and the
South Staffordshire iron-works from stoppage
under the competition of the Scotch black-
band works. Of South Staffordshire he says :
“ Hitherto the second most important iron dis-
trict in the kingdom, it could no longer have
maintained its ground against other localities had
it. not been for this discovery. South Wales had
its cheap and good coals, its blackbands, and its
supplies of sea-borne haematites, as well as its
own argillaceous ironstones ; Scotland its beds of
blackbands ; and the North of England its oolitic
ores ; but up to the present time South Stafford-
shire had only its argillaceous ironstones, always
the most expensive to raise, with such admixture
of haematite and North Staffordshire stone as the
great cost of carriage would permit.” 1

It is even possible that recourse will some day
be had to the Wealden ores, used in the old
charcoal iron-works of Sussex, and which are
both rich and plentiful, though too distant from
coal for present use.

It is an all-important fact of this subject, that

1 Blackwell, p. 105.

Of the Iron Trade.

323

the ore is carried to the fuel, not the fuel to the
ore. This was the case when the pack-horse
conveyed ore to the forges situated among the
wood lands which supplied the charcoal. When
timber-fuel was abundant in Ireland, ore was
sent thither from England. In the still earlier
times of the foot-blast the smelting hearth was
shifted about the hills to the parts most abound-
ing in timber, as may be inferred from heaps of
scoria scattered here and there up to the very
summit of the hills. And it is the case now with
all our superior means of transport and dimi-
nished consumption of fuel. The same fact is
found elsewhere.

“ Prussia is rich in iron ores, but they seldom
occur along with the coal. In former times, the
blast-furnaces were built where wood abounded
and water power was available ; but in later
times, as the use of coal and coke became more
and more general, it was found that the coal-
basins were the fittest localities for the erection
of works, as it was more easy and economical to
take the ore to the fuel than the fuel to the
ore .” 1

Let us now consider the present position and
prospects of the English iron manufacture com-

1 Percy’s Metallurgy of Iron, p. 564.

324

The Coal Question.

paratively to those of other countries. The fol-
lowing are the amounts of pig iron produced by
the three chief iron making nations in 1862 : —

Tons.

Great Britain 3,943,469

France 1,053,000

United States 884,474

If the produce of all other countries were added,
it would still be found, no doubt, that our

produce exceeds that of the rest of the world , in
spite of the recent rapid progress of the manu-
facture in France and America. Not long ago
our exports of iron were scarcely inferior to the
gross produce of the rest of the world. 1 This is
not due to the quality of our iron. On the con-
trary, our cheap iron is some of the worst made
anywhere. If we compare European iron-pro-
ducing countries as to the quality and quantity

of produce, the following are the orders, the

higher place denoting
quantity : — 2

Quality of Iron.

Sweden.

Belgium.

Prussia.

Austria.

France.

England.

the higher quality or

Qiiantity of Irun.

England.

France.

Austria.

Prussia.

Sweden.

Belgium.

1 Truran on the Iron Manufacture of Great Britain, pp. iii. iv.

2 Canada at the Universal Exhibition of 1S55, p. 296.

Of the Iron Trade.

325

The inferiority of our iron is due to the
sulphur, phosphorus, or other impurities of our
fuel and ore. It is on this account that steel,
even in Mr. Bessemer’s process, has to he made
from Swedish iron or other choice metal. And
the exceptionally fine and high-priced English
iron made by the Low Moor and Bowling Com-
panies is chiefly due to the quality of the coal
used.

The vast extension of our manufacture is due
to cheapness, and this is the point of all import-
ance in the great mass of cases, — in bridges,
rails, ships, heavy framework, pipes, fences, &c.
The use of iron is altogether boundless , provided
it can be had cheap enough. As Dr. Percy re-
marks, in spite of the marvellous advancement
of the iron trade, “ yet it may be safely affirmed
that the uses of iron will he vastly more extended
than at present, and that there is no just ground
for apprehension lest there should be over-pro-
duce of this precious metal. Even the railway
system is in a state of rapid growth, and the
time will come, when every habitable part of the
earth’s surface will he reticulated with iron or
steel roads.”

Of the greatly increased supplies of iron re-
quired in the future general progress of nations,

326

« The Coal (Question.

we shall continue fox* many years to supply a
large part, and to enjoy the wealth and influence
which it gives us. But this cheapness depends
upon raising coal from our mines and running it
into our furnaces at a very low price. Now low
prices cannot hold very long with a consumption
of coal growing as it has been shown to grow.
Were there no other demands upon the South
Wales and Scotch coal-fields than that of the
iron trade, yet this is of so unlimited an extent
that sooner or later the voracious iron furnaces
will exhaust our seams as they exhausted our
woods. And the result must be a new migration
of our great trade.

It is impossible there should he two opinions
as to the future seat of the iron trade. The
abundance and purity of both fuel and ore in
the United States, with the commercial enter-
prise of American manufacturers, put the ques-
tion beyond doubt.

“In the North,” says Dr. Percy, “the indefinite
expansion of the anthracite iron manufacture is
equally certain, whatever may he the policy of
the government, or the result of the present civil
war. The wonderful iron-ore wealth of New
Jersey has hardly yet been explored; and
another anthracite iron region about Morristown

Of the Iron Trade.

327

would already have been added to the rest, had
there been any direct facilities for bringing the
coal to the ore. Now that the Carbondale or
Wyoming coal basin, and the Mohanoy or
middle coal basin, have both been opened up
to the Hudson river market, the vast magnetic
ore beds of Lake Champlain will have many
more high stacks erected near them than those
which already stand upon the shore. Some of
these are noble works, mounted on iron pillars.
But the principal manufacture must always cling
to the Lehigh and Schuykill and Lower Susque-
hanna valleys in Pennsylvania, where the ore is
abundant, the coal near at hand, and the flux on
the spot ; where the whole land is a garden, and
therefore food cheap and labour plentiful, and
the great seaports not far off.” 1

The American iron manufacture has been re-
tarded by two chief causes : —

1. The fact that the coal, ore, and flux are not
in such close conjunction as in England,

2. The high rate of wages in the United
States.

1 Percy’* Metallurgy, Iron and Steel, p. 382. The last remarks are
mistaken in their present application, as will he explained in the'
following chapter.

328

The Coal Question.

The first obstacle will disappear. The Ameri-
cans, of all people in the world, are the most
forward in driving canals, river navigations,
and railways where profit can be made. And
while the materials of the iron manufacture are
being wedded together in the States, our iron-
masters, as we have seen, are seeking their
materials at greater distances. The very rail-
way system, which is said to have saved the
North of England and the South Staffordshire
iron works from a scarcity of materials, will
enable the Americans to overcome their great
obstacle, and thus one advantage of the English
manufacturer becomes illusory.

The high rate of wages in a new country
like the States is a true and natural obstacle
to the progress of a manufacture, but as we
shall see in the next chapter it is one which time
will overcome.

If the Americans have obstacles to overcome,
they have advantages in cheap and good mineral
fuel, which cannot be over-estimated. The an-
thracite- of Mauch Chunk, or the bituminous
coal of Ohio, is got almost for the mere price of
quarrying, as coal used to be got in Stafford-
shire, and it is laying the foundation there, as
it did here, of a great iron-working industry.

Of the Iron Trade.

329

Pittsburg is the American Sheffield and Wolver-
hampton. The steel as well as the iron
manufacture has made a secure lodgment there , 1
and its development is a question only of
time.

Percy’s Metallurgy of Iron, p. 381.

330

The Goal Question.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PROBLEM OP THE TRADING BODIES.

The position of this country in future years will
not be rightly appreciated if we confine our atten-
tion near home. Without foreign commerce, hut
with our coal, it is possible we might have done
much that w'e have done, hut we could never
have supported such masses of busy population,
enjoyed such a variety of foreign products, or
reared such a great system of industry. We
should have been a happy ingenious self-depen-
dent people, but not numerous nor rich, and
neither endowed with our present world-wide
influence, nor subjected to its dangers and re-
sponsibilities.

But as we are, unfettered commerce, vindicated
by our political economists, and founded on the
material basis of our coal resources, has made
the several quarters of the globe our willing
tributaries. “Though England,” it has been

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 331

truly said, “ were one vast rock, where not an
acre of com had never waved, still those four
hundred millions of men, whose labour is repre-
sented by the machinery of the country, would
extort an abundance of corn from all the sur-
rounding states.” 1 The plains of North America
and Russia are our corn-fields ; Chicago and
Odessa our granaries; Canada and the Baltic
are our timber-forests ; Australasia contains our
sheep-farms, and in South America are our herds
of oxen; Peru sends her silver, and the gold of
California and Australia flows to London ; the
Chinese grow tea for us, and our coffee, sugar,
and spice plantations are in all the Indies. Spain
and Prance are our vineyards, and the Medi-
terranean our fruit-garden ; and our cotton-
grounds, which formerly occupied the Southern
United States, are now everywhere in the warm
regions of the earth.

But great as is our own system, it is not the
whole. Commerce is undoubtedly making its
way by its own subtle force, and is uniting the
parts of the globe into a web of interchanges, in
which the peculiar riches of each are made useful
to all. The sum of human happiness is thus
being surely increased, but we should be hasty

1 H. Fairbairn, Political Economy of Railroads, p. 113.

332

The Coal Question.

in assuming that the growth of general commerce
ensures for this island everlasting riches and
industrial supremacy.

We ought not to forget that the enjoyments of
a commercial country are not without probable
drawbacks. We are no longer independent. The
rise and decadence of other trading nations is no
longer a matter of indifference to us. Our profits
depend upon comparative not absolute riches,
and as an individual nation we may find harm in
foreign wealth.

And our anxiety must be indefinitely increased
in reflecting that while other countries mostly
subsist upon the annual and ceaseless income of
the harvest , we are draioing more and more upon
a capital which yields no annual interest, but once
turned to light and heat and force, is gone for ever
into space.

So far indeed as trade is dependent on legisla-
tion and social and political conditions, its future
must be almost wholly uncertain and beyond the
reach of reasoning. The development of history
cannot be predicted, for in the “ still and mental
parts” of a single unborn individual may reside
the forces which are to move the world. But
industry and riches must have a material basis,
and it is in this respect their future course comes

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 333

somewhat within the grasp of science. The
principles of economy have been so far investi-
gated hy onr own writers, that with given ma-
terial conditions the tendency of trade may often
be certainly inferred. And if we may assume
that the spirit of commercial freedom will spread
and suffer no serious relapse, it is quite possible
to foresee the necessary course of trade.

Taking commerce as the free growth of the
instincts of gain, we find it resolved into a case
of complex attractions and perturbations, as
between several gravitating bodies. Trade be-
tween two bodies is a case of simple attraction,
each naturally attracting and buying the articles
which are made with greater comparative facility
and cheapness hy the other, paying with its own
comparatively cheaper products. There is or
should be no competition between them ; each
state should develop the kinds of industry and
sources of wealth opposite to those of the other
state. Tree interchange of products then raises
the economy of labour to its highest pitch.

In proportion, too, as the circumstances or in-
dustries of two states are more diverse, -will trade
between them be more to the advantage of each.
Two countries whose circumstances are exactly
alike can have no motive to trade with each

334

The Coed Question.

other. Prices will bear the same proportions in
each, and thus will leave no margin of profit on
exchange, even to pay the freight. And this
result will hold too even if one country were
naturally richer in every way than another,
provided it were in every particular equally
richer. Thus if a man with a given amount of
labour could raise both twice as much corn and
twice as much wool in Australia as in England,
we could have no trade with Australia in these
articles. But if the same labour could raise
twice as much wool but only just as much corn
there as here, profit will evidently he gained on
the exchange of wool and corn. To the writings
of Bicardo, and especially of John Stuart Mill , 1
we are indebted for the discovery and distinct
explanation of these principles.

When three states trade with each other, the
problem is one of some complexity. A state
possessing any peculiar kind of riches may profit
and confer profit by trade with each of the other
two, and the highest advantage will arise when
each devotes its labour exclusively to kinds of
industry in which it has comparatively the

1 Principles of Political Economy, book iii. chap. xvii. ; or, Essays
on some unsettled Questions of Political Economy. Essay No. 1.

The subject “ Of the Competition of different Countries in the same
Market ” is treated by J. S. Mill. Principles, book iii. chap. xxv.

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 335

greatest facilities, or natural riches. If two of
the states, however, are of similar circumstances,
they cannot trade with each other, hut only each
of them with the third. And the total trade
will have to be shared between the two similar
states in some proportion to their absolute capa-
cities of production. For if one had a larger
share than this, its powers would be harder
pushed and prices somewhat raised, which would
at once cause trade to flow more towards the
other similar ■ state. If one of these similar
states were to grow in absolute powers of pro-
duction, it must take a greater share of the trade
with the third state and positively abstract a
portion of the trade between the other two, to
the injury not of the third, hut of the second
similar state.

The question is now sufficiently complex to
illustrate our actual position. In reality the
countries with whom we trade present a problem
of almost infinite complexity, hut for simplicity
we may form a few great groups according to
similarities of condition. Five groups may he
made to comprehend all countries with which we
have relations of importance to our present
subject.

1. Great Britain, capable for the present of inde-

336 The Coal Question.

finitely producing- all products depending on the
use of coal.

2. Continental Europe, capable of an inde-
finite production of artistic, luxurious, or semi-
tropical products, but debarred by comparative
want of coal from competition with us.

3. Tropical, Eastern, and other regions, capable
of supplying food and raw materials, but of
climate and other natural conditions wholly dif-
ferent from those of Great Britain.

4. Australasian, African, and American colonies,
capable of an immense production of raw mate-
rials, but endowed with no considerable coal
resources.

5. United States of North America, capable
of an immense production of corn and raw
materials, but also possessing coal deposits thirty-
seven times as great as our own.

At present Great Britain carries on a growing
trade with all the other four bodies. The older
nations of Europe, indeed, check the trade by
restrictions upon the repeal of which we cannot
certainly count. Our trade with Western Europe,
too, is of a different character from that we enjoy
elsewhere, because as the ancient seat of the arts,
and endowed with considerable mineral riches,
we find there our own superiors in many finer

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. SSI

kinds of manufacture. With respect to France
and Western Europe, then, we are mainly pro-
ducers or traders in raw materials. Towards the
Tropical, Eastern, Colonial, and American bodies,
in fact to the world generally, we are manufac-
turers, seeking materials to operate, or food to
live upon, and giving in exchange the products
of our machine labour.

Suppose trade to spread according to that spirit
of progress which seems almost the established
order of things. Eor many years to come our
relations will remain of the same kind as at
present. Europe will receive more and more
crude iron, coal, metals, and other materials,
returning food, or elegant articles, while other
parts of the world will take more finished pro-
ducts and return then appropriate raw materials.
Wherever we trade it will be upon coal, or its
more or less refined products. There is no say-
ing that we may not thus progress for the greater
part of a century, allowing our manufacturing
population to quadruple itself, and our industry
to multiply itself many times.

Let us uoav consider the changes that are going
on within the several trading bodies. In Great
Britain the agricultural population is about
stationary, and its offspring has to find employ-

338

The Coal Question.

ment in the towns, or else to migrate. So fami-
liar too is emigration becoming to ns, so great
are the facilities and foreign attractions to it,
and so congenial is it to the British character to
seek independence and adventure across the seas,
that a continuous exodus of our population is
already a necessity. Our emigrants either reside
as agents and merchants in foreign ports and
countries where they powerfully stimulate trade
with England, or they settle in the colonies and
States of which they increase the productive
powers. And we must not forget that the
kindred nations of Germany are suffering an
exodus almost comparable to our own, and are
similarly contributing to the growth of our
colonies and the United States.

Supposing protective and restrictive tendencies
not to gain ground, we shall continue to grow on
the one side as a great manufacturing body,
while the colonies and most foreign states will
find a source of wealth and advantage in sup-
plying us with raw materials and developing the
kinds of industry for which their facilities are
almost boundless as compared with ours.

But the growth of production cannot go on
ad infinitum ; natural limits will ultimately be
reached on the side both of the agricultural and

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 339

of the manufacturing country, even if no political
events intervene to check the trade. Suppose
some event to occur and prevent our growing
population from meeting a corresponding increase
of subsistence. Prom established habits of
prosperity and early marriage we shall continue
to grow with a certain inertia, hut the rising
generation will not find the comfort and early
independence they were brought up to expect.
They will turn to emigration as a congenial re-
source, and apply their labour to stimulate trade
and the production of raw materials in many
parts of the world. The corresponding demand
for our manufactures will then tend to support
or revive the progress of industry at home, and
maintain the long existing rate of multipli-
cation.

It is by a process of this sort that the recent
emigration, incited to a great extent by the gold
discoveries, has contributed to the late extra-
ordinary increase of wealth. It has encouraged
our population to adopt new habits of early
marriage. And in America, Australia, Africa,
Asia, and the Pacific Archipelago there are open
lands and undeveloped natural resources which
still admit of a vast extension and continuance
of the same process.

The Coal Question.

340

Not to speak of the maritime nations, especially
the Spanish and the Dutch, who preceded us in
extensive colonization, the custom of planting
out colonies with us dates hack three centuries,
to the time of Queen Elizabeth. As early as
1681 an English writer 1 clearly explained that
plantations were not an exhausting drain upon
the mother country, hut rather “ a wheel to set
most of our other trades agoing.”

“The plantations,” he said, “do not depopu-
late, but rather increase, or improve our people,”
and they “ have increast the profitable employ-
ments, not only by building of ships, carrying
out our manufactures and products thither, hut
also by returning theirs hither to supply our-
selves, and also a great part of the rest of the
world.”

When we look either to the trade the colonies
carry on with us, to the internal happiness they
enjoy, or the benefits which they promise to the
world in the future, it is impossible to overvalue
the Anglo-Saxon spirit of colonization. 2 But when
we follow out a policy of free colonization to its

1 John Houghton. Collection of Letters for the Improvement of
Husbandry and Trade. London, 1681, pp. 35, 36.

2 Soc the admirable lecture of Prof. J. E. Oairnes to the Dublin
Young Men’s Christian Association, “On Colonization and Colonial
Government,” Oct. 20th, 1864.

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 341

necessary ultimate result, the prospect is more
pleasing to a citizen of the world than to a
citizen of this small kingdom. For free and
voluntary emigration enables and induces our
home population to go on multiplying at high
rates, otherwise impossible. Not only then have
we a growing population, but a growing margin
also, who, even in times of the highest prosperity,
must seek abroad the subsistence not to be had
at home. The longer our prosperity continues
unslackened the more necessary a free outlet will
become. But the moment to be apprehended is
when the first general check to our prosperity
and growth at home is encountered. Then the
larger part of the rising generation will find
themselves superfluous, and must either leave
the country in a vast body, or remain here to
create painful pressure and poverty. A less
active people than the English might endure the
latter alternative, and sink by degrees into the
stationary condition which characterised some
continental nations, and England herself in the
early part of the last century. But we may well
refuse to look forward to such a change here, so
painful must be the disappointment of the best
hopes which must accompany it. Nor could we
feel sure that our popular institutions could pass

342

The Coed Question.

unharmed through a period of general pressure
and want of employment among a vast artisan
population.

The alternative, I say, is wholesale emigration.
“ The only immediate remedy,” says Mr. Senior, 1
“for an actual excess in one class of the popu-
lation, is the ancient and approved one, coloniam
dedueere. . . . It is a remedy preparatory to
the adoption and necessary to the safety of every
other.” We have seen in the chapter on Popu-
lation how our agricultural districts in 1811-31
passed through a period of pauperism and excess
of population due to an unwarranted growth of
population. The gravest fears for our social
soundness were excited, and the evil was only
overcome by extensive migration into our towns
and colonies. The Scotch Highlands and more
lately Ireland have presented still more striping
instances of the choice between pressure at home
and migration abroad. It is only a question of
time when our whole population, including that
of our present most progressive towns, will be
placed in the same dilemma, and the result must
he a vast and continuous exodus.

Eut now comes the most serious point of all.
After a certain period emigration will begin to

1 Throe Lectures on Wa^cs. Preface, }>. v.

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 343

have a very different effect upon the destinies of
this country from that it noio exercises. Instead
of extending across the seas an agricultural
system in harmonious union, with our own
manufacturing system, it will develop, or rather
complete abroad, systems of iron and coal indus-
try in direct competition with ours. The process
will be of a two-sided nature.

It is well known that in spreading over a new
country, settlers are naturally apt to exhaust the
virgin soil they get so cheap, regardless of
manures and agricultural arts by which its fer-
tility might he maintained. Upon a process of
this kind the able argument of Prof. Cairnes in
his “Slave Power” is founded, hut exhaustive
agriculture and migration are the necessary
results in any country or social system of a
boundless supply of rich lands. It must pay
better to take the cream off the land when the
farmer can freely select new farms of untouched
richness. A gradual inland migration is the
result, and so rapidly has this gone on in the
United States towards the West, that already the
settlers in Minnesota, Washington, and Nebraska
territories are on the verge of deserts that never
can he cultivated. And we cannot but acquiesce
in the apparently extravagant estimates of

344

The Coal Question.

American writers concerning the future constant
growth of their population. So long as there is
security for life and property left, people will
multiply over lands so rich that, as an American
orator said, “ if you tickle them with a hoe, they
will laugh with a harvest.”

To appreciate the growth of the American
people we need only look upon the results of the
American census.

POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

Year.

Population.

Numerical Increase.

Rate per cent, of
increase.

1790

3,922,827

1800

5,305,937

1,383,110

35

1810

7,239,814

1,933,877

36

1820

9,638,191

2,398,377

33

1830

12,866,020

3,227,829

33

1840

17,069,453

4,203,433

33

1850

23,191,876

6,122,423

36

I860

31,445,080

8,253,204

36

If we compare the above with the corre-
sponding results for our population, 1 it will be

1 Chapter x.

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 345

seen that we have scarcely anything here to
eqnal the rate of American increase in constancy
or amount. The general rate of growth in
America is donble our highest rate (18 per cent.)
for the country as a whole, and is just equal to
the rate of progress of Glamorgan at present, or
of our manufacturing towns at their period of
most rapid increase.

The very emigration Avhich checks the rapidity
of our growth contributes to maintain that of
America, and nothing is more probable in poli-
tical matters than that their population will grow
both by internal multiplication and by vast and
ceaseless increments from Europe. It is not an
extravagant estimate of the Superintendent of
the American Census, that the population of the
States will number 100 millions of persons
before the year 1900.'

With such a growth of population agriculture
must soon be carried to its first limits. Within a
century the choicest lands will have been taken up,
and the second and third rate must he settled, or
the old exhausted lands revived by more diligent
culture. Agriculture will begin to lose its ex-
tremely easy and profitable character in the States.

1 See American Finances and Resources. Letter No. V. of R. J.
Walker, M.A. London, 1864, p. 13.

346

The Coal Question.

On the other hand, coal, yet to be had at the
mere cost of quarrying, will offer more and more
tempting employment comparatively to agricul-
ture. In other words, labour no longer drawn
away by the superior attractions of agriculture
will become abundant in manufacture, and at
last a sound system of metallurgical industry
will grow up on the banks of the Ohio, capable
of almost indefinite extension.

It is this decadence of agriculture joined to the
rise of a manufacturing system which most dis-
tinctly threatens our commercial position. Corn
will be growing dearer in the States, while coal
and iron are growing dearer here The indus-
trial conditions of England and the States will
thus approximate to equilibrium, and the advan-
tages of trade will diminish. We shall neither
buy corn from them, nor sell iron articles to
them. And at the same time America will tend
to supplant us in the European market for iron
and other crude materials, and in all parts of the
world in the market for textile and useful manu-
factured articles in general.

Then, if not before, the continuous multiplica-
tion of our home population and industry will
receive a check, and a definitive choice of whole-
sale emigration or a change of habits will be

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 347

presented to us. And it must be further ob-
served that by the time in question our con-
sumption of coal will certainly be several times
as great as at present. Our total available
stores of coal divided by the annual consump-
tion will give a proportionately shorter period
of even stationary duration. And while our
colonial states will be growing in the vigour
of youth, receiving our whole offspring, and
establishing new currents of trade far from
our shores, our strength will tend to fail
continuously.

Of course at the worst we shall not be devoid
of many resources. Our position, “ anchored by
the side of Europe,” and close to the terrestrial
centre of the globe, gives us a claim to the
carrying and trading business of the world, which
previously belonged to our close neighbours the
Dutch. And our manufactures, though they
must diminish in size and importance, may im-
prove in finish and artistic merit. Our work
will be that of the trinket and the watch rather
than that of the Herculean engine — handiwork
rather than machine work. We shall probably
approximate to the manufacturing condition of
Western Europe, and the extreme elegance of
our earthenware, glass, and many small manu-

348

The Coal Question.

factures raises the hope that we may attain a
high rank in artistic manufactures.

But excellence in such smaller matters can ill
compensate the loss of our supremacy in the
elements of engineering and maritime success.
When navigation and the construction of a fleet
is a pure question of coal mining and iron me-
tallurgy, it is hard to see how we can insure that
invincibility on the seas which is essential to the
safety of an insular nation dependent on com-
merce for its very bread.

The rate of our progress and exhaustion must
depend greatly upon the legislation of colonies and
foreign states. Should France revert to a less
enlightened commercial policy ; should Europe
maintain or extend a prohibitory system ; should
the Northern States succeed in erecting a perma-
nent Morrill tariff for the benefit of Pennsylvanian
manufacturers ; and should the tendency of all
our colonies towards Protection increase, the
progress of trade may indeed be vastly retarded.
Under these circumstances the present rapid rate
of our growth may soon be somewhat checked.
The introduction of railways, the repeal of the
Corn Laws, the sudden settlement of our Aus-
tralian colonies, may prove exceptional events.
Then, after a period of somewhat painful de-

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 349

pression, we may fall into a lower rate of pro-
gress, that can be maintained for a lengthened
period, passing out of sight.

But on the whole Eree Trade is likely to ex-
tend itself on the Continent. Our colonies after
a brief experience may see through their mis-
taken and highly prejudicial views ; and the
Americans will hardly succeed in their apparent
object of rendering their continent a self-con-
tained Cliinese-like Empire, unknown to Eu-
ropean trade and intercourse. And in other
parts of the world — Africa, Asia, and South
America — there is sure to be a general and per-
haps a very great opening for future trade.

It may reasonably be questioned whether a
great and continuous increase of our industry is
desirable in a national point of view. But for
those colonies and countries which trade with us
it is an unalloyed benefit. Corn would be a drug
in North America, animal products in South
America, and wool in Australia, but for the
market we offer ; and were not political economy
a rather rare and difficult study, the inhabitants
of tlie States, and of our colonies generally,
would be aware that the development of the
pastoral and agricultural powers of a new coun-
try is the first and most appropriate source of

350

The Coal Question.

riches. It is the very profits thus gained that
render wages high, and labour, as it is said, too
scarce for manufactures to exist. To receive the
products of a mature system of labour, like that
of England, in return for the raw products of
the soil, is the true mode of creating a rich and
populous colony. When the soil is fully occupied
it will be time to think of imitating and com-
peting with older countries.

But manufacturers are always the first, as
Adam Smith and Sir Robert Peel remarked, to
desire artificial restrictions. Colonial manufac-
turers constantly aver that the overflowing
pauper population of the old world enables it to
undersell the productions of a colony. And they
seize upon a paragraph in Mr. Mill’s Political
Economy , 1 in which that eminent writer cau-
tiously recommends Protection as a convenient
mode of giving a first impulse to a branch of
manufacture. Mr. Mill can hardly know the
evil which his words are working, misapplied
and distorted in meaning as they are for inter-
ested purposes.

It is indeed a reproach constantly hurled upon
England, even by her own offspring, that she

1 Principles, &c. Book v. chap. x. Third edition, vol. ii. pp. 507,
508.

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 351

only removed her restrictions — her navigation
laws, her prohibition of the export of machinery,
and of the import of continental manufactures —
when they were no longer necessary. It is,
however, quite doubtful whether we derived any
real benefit from the navigation laws ; there is
no doubt that the other restrictions were a great
injury to our progress, and in no way assisted
the rise of our arts. The attempted strict ex-
clusion of continental manufactures greatly
conduced to our stationary condition in the first
half of last century, and I am wholly unable to
see how it the least forwarded those great in-
ventions in metallurgy and mechanism which did
cause our rise. Yet we continually meet in
foreign authors such remarks as these : “ The
requisite skill and development of the mineral
resources have been obtained by a century of ex-
perience, when foreign competition teas religiously
excluded by prohibitory duties , until England
could make iron cheaper than all the world, and
since then domestic competition has cheapened
the processes, and reduced the cost to the lowest
practicable limit.”

The falsity of the statement as regards the
point in view is apparent. Erom the very same
writer I have already quoted the statement that

352

The Coal Question.

about the middle of last century England imported
fourth-fifths of the iron she consumed. 1 The high
price of iron had long retarded , not forwarded,
the progress of the engine, the railway, and the
mechanical works generally by which alone our
manufacturing system could be adequately de-
veloped.

Our growth has been nourished by freedom,
not by restrictions ; and if kindred colonies and
nations and foreign states wish to raise the world
into the earliest and highest state of wealth,
they will push trade to its utmost without jea-
lousy of the immediate wealth it confers upon
us, in virtue of our coal resources and our well-
developed skill.

Any attempt on the part of foreign nations to
cripple the development of our trade injures them
far more than us. The Morrill tariff almost
wholly recoils upon the nation which submits
to it. The effect upon us is seen in a temporary
and inconsiderable check to one or two of our
branches of industry. Its effect upon America is
to cut it off from intercourse with the rest of the
civilized world, to destroy its maritime influence,
and to arrest, as far as human interference can
arrest, the development of a great state. No

1 P. 308.

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 353

doubt it enables a manufacturing interest to
grow half a century or more before its time ; but
just so much as one interest is forcibly promoted
so much are other interests forcibly held back.
And no system of industry thus requiring the
unnatural stimulus of government protection
can compete with foreign systems stimulated by
natural circumstances. When manufacture is
naturally more profitable in America than in
Britain we shall be supplanted, and not before
then. The advent of that period can be hastened
only by freedom of industry and trade, not by
legislative devices.

A A

354

The Coed Question.

CHAPTER XVII.

OP TAXES AND THE NATIONAL DEBT.

A pew pages may be given to considering the
policy of imposing duties and restrictions with a
view to limit the consumption of our fuel.

The prohibition of the export of coal is the
first step which naturally suggests itself, and it
has often been advocated. Dr. Auckland, when
asked, before the Committee on the Coal Trade
of 1830, his opinion of the policy of allowing ex-
portation, answered : “ It is permitting foreigners
to consume the vitals of our own prosperity. I
consider coals the stamina upon which the manu-
facturing prosperity of the country primarily
depends ; and I think it our duty not to spare
one ounce of coals to any person but ourselves.”
'The imposition of a more or less heavy duty
on the export of coal is certainly the way we
should commence a prohibitory system. Such a
duty might be imposed for any of the following
purposes : — ■

Of Taxes and the National Debt. 355 15

1st. To raise revenue.

2d. To cripple the competing manufactures of
other nations.

3d. To discourage exportation, and thus spare
our stores of coal.

It is plain that the first purpose is more or
less inconsistent with the other two.

I can see no general reasons against levying
revenue by an export duty. Sir II. Peel adopted
as a principle of English finance, “ that with
respect to exports there shall be no duty leviable.

I am unwilling to make any exception to this
principle.” 1 And to the present day the rule
has, I believe, been upheld without exception.

Yet there are no principles of economic science,
so far as I know, bearing against export duties
that do not equally bear against import duties.
There are only the general arguments against
any restrictions on commercial intercourse. In
fact, Sir It. Peel had himself previously said,
when proposing the coal-tax of 1812 : “I must
say I cannot conceive any more legitimate object
of duty than coal exported to foreign countries.

I speak of a reasonable and just duty, and I say
that a tax levied on an article produced in this

1 Hansard's Debates, third series, vol. bexvii. p. 478,

A A 2

356

The Coal Question.

country — an element of manufactures — necessary
to manufactures — contributing by its export to
increase the competition witli our own manufac-
tures — I think that a tax on such an article is a
perfectly legitimate source of revenue.” 1

Lord Overstone, too, asserted in liis speech on
the Commercial Treaty with France — a speech
distinguished by his usual clearness and sound-
ness of thought — that an export duty on a com-
modity of peculiar value and limited supply, like
coal, may be an advantageous and legitimate
source of revenue.

Instances of export duties of a similar kind
are not wanting, but they are rather unfortunate
instances. The Spaniards taxed Peruvian gold;
the Sicilian Government, sulphur ; Russia, its
products of tallow, hemp, and flax. In India we
'raise a large revenue of the kind on opium, and
the Slave States propose an impost on ^cotton.
Too high a duty, indeed, is apt to draw out
foreign competition, and ruin at once the trade
and revenue, as the sulphur trade of Italy was
for a time ruined. But we do not fear com-
petition with Newcastle coal; we rather desire
to avoid the foreign competition to buy it, and

Hansard’s Debates, third series, vol. l\i. p. 14S.

357

Of Taxes and the National Debt.

there seems accordingly to be no abstract objec-
tions to a duty on coal exported.

But I think that Lord Overstone in advocating
such a duty, as a source of revenue, must have
overlooked that peculiar relation of coal to our
shipping interest which I have endeavoured to
explain in chapter xiii. The fact is, that such a
tax would he paid by ourselves as entirely as the
tax on dogs or men-servants, with the further
disadvantage that toe should pay it through and to
the discouragement of our navigation. It would
be equivalent to a duty on outward tonnage.

Bor as our coals, in nearly every part of the
world, meet and compete with inferior native
coals or other fuel, the freight and price have to
he lowered until the competition is successful.
Witness the rate to Callao, which is no more
than that to Spain. If a 4s. coal duty were
imposed, our shipowners would receive about
4s. less freight to most places, which consumers
would ultimately pay in the shape of increased
inward freights and prices of foreign articles. At
the same time it must he allowed that the re-
duction of outward freights would stimulate the
exportation of any other heavy commodities like
bricks, cement, earthenware, slates, flag-stones,
paving-stones, salt, pig-iron, &c., which could be

358

The Coal Question.

found profitably to take the place of coal as
ballast. On the whole it may be said that there
are even more reasons against a tax on coal as a
source of revenue than might be urged concerning
most taxes. It would be paid out of our pockets
as much as the income-tax, and would act besides
as a restriction on commerce and a burden on
navigation.

To impose a duty on coals to injure conti-
nental manufactures on the sea-board towns, is a
purpose that no English statesman in the present
day would avow. It was on the contrary argued
by Mr. Gladstone and others, in carrying the
Commercial Treaty through the House of Com-
mons, that a large manufacturing interest on the
French coasts dependent on English coal, would
be an excellent guarantee for the peace and
extended intercourse we so ardently desire with
that country.

There only remains the question of a partially
or completely prohibitory duty on the simple
and legitimate ground of self-defence, to save
our posterity, if possible, from the misery and
danger that a failure of our coal mines would
bring upon them. If, indeed, we are again to
resort to restrictions on trade, it is not apparent
why we repealed the Corn Laws, which might

359

Of Taxes and the National Debt.

have been far more efficient in preventing the
exhaustion of our coal mines than any measures
we are now likely to adopt. Nor is it quite
apparent why we should stop the export of coal
and not that of pig-iron, every ton of which
represents the consumption of two or three tons
of coal. The question of a prohibitory tax is hut
a part of the general question whether we do
wisely in allowing a suicidal development of
trade, and this question will he again referred to
in my concluding remarks.

It is hardly necessary to discuss a duty on all
coal raised from the pit’s mouth. Such a duty
of 2s. per ton was proposed by Pitt in 1784, at
the beginning of his great financial career. But
it was on the express ground that sea-borne coal
was already burdened with duties of long stand-
ing, and that equalization of burdens was de-
sirable. He intended, too, to exempt manufac-
turers from the impost as far as possible. But
only a week after proposing the tax Mr. Pitt
said, with the candour that distinguished his
greatness, “ Prom the information he had been
able to collect upon the subject, he found men’s
•min ds so adverse to the tax, and that it would be
necessary to make such a variety of exceptions
and regulations in order to prevent it from having

360

The Coal Question.

an injurious effect on one or other of onr manu-
factures, that he thought it more expedient to
abandon the tax .” 1

The character of a general tax on coal was
truly stated by Robert Bald. “ It would un-
nerve the very sinews of our trade, and be a
death-blow to our flourishing manufactories.
Were our determined enemy set in council, to
deliberate upon a plan to wound us in a vital
point as a nation, the advising the imposing of
this tax Avould be the most successful he could
possibly suggest.” And again he says truly,
“ A small tax on the ton of coal would be a heavy
tax on the ton of iron. The whole of our mi nin g-
concerns depend as to their prosperity upon the
abundance and cheapness of fuel, and if the price
be increased by means of taxes, the utility of the
steam-engine will be greatly abridged .” 2

Lord Karnes, Sir J. Sinclair, and Adam Smith
were the most distinguished of the many writers
who deplored the mischief wrought by the old
taxes on sea-borne coal, in retarding the progress
of towns and country places, where cheap coal
might otherwise have been enjoyed. But it is
impossible to describe adequately the all-per-

1 Hansard’s Parliamentary History, vol. xxiv. p. 121ft.

2 On the Scotch f'-oal Trade, p. 1 07.

Of Taxes and the National Debt. 361

vading bane that a general tax on coal would be.
A rise in price of coal, whether from taxation or
scarcity, must levy open and insidious contribu-
tions upon us in a manner with which no other
tax whatever can compare. Sydney Smith de-
scribed how a man in former days was taxed at
every step from the cradle to the coffin. But
through coals we shall be taxed in everything
and at every moment. Our food will be taxed as
it crosses the ocean, as it is landed by steam upon
the wharf, as it is drawn away by the locomotive,
as the corn is ground and the bread mixed and
kneaded and baked by steam, and the meat is
boiled and roasted by the kitchen fire. The
bricks and mortar, the iron joists, the timber
that is carried and sawn and planed by steam,
will be taxed. The water that is pumped into
our houses, and the sewage that is pumped away,
and the gas that lights us in and out, will be
taxed. Not an article of furniture or ornament,
not a thread of our clothes, not a carriage v r e
drive in, nor a pair of shoes we walk in, but is
partly made by coal and will be taxed with it.

And most things will be taxed over and over
again at each stage of manufacture. Materials
will be burthened in the cost of steam- carriage,
and the want of outward coal- freight —in their

362

The Coal Question.

steam conveyance liere — in the machinery that
is to manufacture them — the engine to drive the
machinery. At every step some tool, some sub-
stance, some operation will suffer in cost from
the use of taxed coal.

A general coal-tax, too, would be subject to
practical difficulties. Coals differ so much in
kind and quality and size, that a uniform tax
would he prohibitory of the use of small or
inferior coals, and great quantities would he
lost and burnt upon the waste heaps. An ad
valorem duty, or one graduated to the size of the
coal, would entail endless trouble and fraud.

On coals for domestic use a tax would in theory
be very desirable ; but it would entail a change
of national habits among a people who look upon
a cheerful fireside as one of the most pleasant
things in life. It was really a tax on domestic
consumption that Pitt proposed, for he intended
to exempt all factories largely consuming coal.
But to discriminate the coal used for different
purposes would he a difficult or impossible task
for the Inland Revenue department.

A tax on coal-gas in domestic consumption
might be most readily collected from the inspec-
tion of the Gas Companies’ books, and would he
a beneficial tax in some ways.

363

Of Taxes and the National Debt.

Little need be said of other possible modes of
legislating with a view to saving coal. To oblige
manufacturers to discard old wasteful engines
and furnaces would be a wholly unjustifiable
interference. It would destroy much property
that is now profitable, and render necessary the
investment of other capital now profitably en-
gaged elsewhere. And in the building of new
engines and furnaces individuals can alone judge
properly what forms are most suitable for their
purposes, and they are sure not to forget the
profit to be derived from a reduced consumption
of fuel.

We could hardly prohibit the burning of duff
and slack coal on the colliery heaps, seeing' that
if not lighted they will take fire by spontaneous
combustion of the pyrites. To prohibit the
screening of coal, again, would deprive many
manufacturers of the cheap small coal which is
essential to their business. And to attempt to
enforce economical modes of mining and work-
ing coal, would be to interfere by legislation in
the most uncertain of enterprises, where no
rules can be laid down, but the individual cir-
cumstances of each pit determine its mode of
working.

ISTothing is more easy than to suggest that the

364

The Coal Question.

Legislature should interfere to check the waste
of coal so much wanted by posterity. But when
we examine the several possible modes of inter-
ference it will he found that they all break the
principles of industrial freedom, to the recogni-
tion of which, since the time of Adam Smith, we
attribute so much of our success. Equal objec-
tions can be urged against interference with
internal industry, or external commerce. To
tax home industry would strike more at the
root of our wealth ; a coal export duty would be
less burdensome, but it would lay us open to
the imputation of perfidy. The greater part of
the world would regard any approach to a new
restrictive system as the appropriate sequel to
that cunning and successful course of commer-
cial manoeuvre, which they consider we have
pursued since the time of Cromwell. It would
seem that we have placed ourselves in a painful
dilemma ; we must either retract the professions
we have made to the world and the principles
we have so recently adopted, or else we must
submit to see our material resources exhausted
in a shorter period than could have been thought
possible.

The only suggestion I can make towards com-
pensating posterity for our present lavish use of

Of Taxes and the National Debt. 365

cheap coal is one that it requires some boldness
to make. I mean the reduction or paying off of
the National Debt. It has long indeed become
a fashion to talk of this as a chimerical notion.
And on various pretexts, hut really from “ the
ignorant impatience of taxation,” we go on
enduring this vast gap in the capital of the
country.

An annual appropriation towards the reduction
of the debt would serve the three purposes of
adding to the productive capital of the country,
of slightly checking our present too rapid pro-
gress, and of lessening the future difficulties of
the country.

If commenced without delay, and continued
with perseverance, the vast debt, now nearly
eight hundred millions sterling, might he
easily reduced to inconsiderable dimensions
within that period now before us, which we
must believe to comprise England’s climax of
prosperity.

A most suitable and unobjectionable mode of
effecting the payment presents itself. It is well
known that the legacy and succession, duties are
of a very improvident nature, because they yearly
convert a portion of the property of the country
into income, and expend it, instead of expending

366

The Coal Question.

the annual interest only . 1 The country, to the
extent of about one-twentieth of its revenue, acts
the part of a spendthrift in spending what it
ought to invest, and trade upon, and transmit to
its descendants for their similar use.

Xow this investment would be duly made by
transferring the whole proceeds of the duty to
the Commissioners for the Ileduction of the
National Debt, not allowing it to enter into the
annual balance sheet of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. Of course it would be useless to do
this unless the remaining revenue were main-
tained at least equal to the expenditure. It
would be absurd to pay debts on one hand and
contract them on the other, in the manner of the
old sinking fund. But such is the growing con-
dition of our revenue, that the appropriation
could easily be made, had we the patience to
refrain for a very few years from those constant
demands for the remission of taxes which are now
become an unreasonable habit. After a very brief
period remission of taxes might again go on,
gradually accelerated by the reduction of the
annual charge of the debt.

At the present time we enjoy the rising tide of
prosperity due to the unprecedented commercial

1 .J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, 3rl Ed. vol. ii. p. 455.

367

Of Taxes and the National J)et)t.

reforms of the last twenty years. Are we wise
in pushing our present enjoyment to the extreme
hy remitting every penny of taxes we can pos-
sibly spare ? And would not the present appro-
priation of the legacy duty to a special purpose
ensure us future remissions at a time when they
will he grateful and useful in contributing to up-
hold for a little longer a rate of progress which
is now, if anything, too rapid ?

It cannot be doubted that before long, if at
all, an effort must be made to relieve the country
of this burden. Writers of the last century
entertained most gloomy anticipations concern-
ing the growing debt, and they were only, wrong
in undervaluing the industrial revolution which
was then proceeding. But now we run the risk
of being too confident, and losing the grand
opportunities we enjoy. It is growing wealth
that makes a happy and prosperous country,
and, no matter what he the absolute wealth of
the country at a future time, it is idle to suppose
that a popular government with a stationary
revenue would ever impose new taxes to pay off
an old debt. It is when a surplus revenue grows
of its own accord, as at present, that we can
alone expect a successful effort to he made.

As a common pretext against any attempt to

368

The Coal Question.

repay the National Debt it is said that we had
better remit taxes instead, and “ leave the money
to fructify in the hands of the people.” But
this is wholly erroneous. Taxes are, partly at
least, paid out of income which would otherwise
be unproductively expended ; part only is sub-
tracted from the fund of productive capital. But
in investing the proceeds of a tax in Consols
towards the reduction of the great debt, almost
the whole money will be added to the productive
capital of the country, and will be placed most
certainly in the hands which will make it fructify
in trade and industrial enterprises . 1

The present Chancellor of the Exchequer has
already devoted a good many millions of surplus
revenue to the reduction of the debt, and has
converted several millions more into terminable
annuities. What is still better, he has often
spoken of the debt in a manner which shows he
would like to do more. Could a minister be
found strong and bold enough to carry out a
permanent and large measure towards the same
end, he would have an almost unprecedented
claim to gratitude and fame. And were the
work once taken in hand, the notions that the
payment of the debt is impossible, or Utopian,

1 J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book v. chap. vii. § 3.

Of Taxes and the National Debt. 369

or undesirable, would quickly be dispersed. They
are mere fallacies of habit.

In regard to our present subject we find, in
the above proposed measure, a legitimate and
practicable mode of giving some compensation
to our posterity, who will undoubtedly suffer
from an increased price of coal, the worst of
taxes.

B B

370

The Coed Question.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.

My work is completed in pointing out the neces-
sary results of our present rapid multiplication
when brought into comparison with a fixed
amount of material resources. The social and
political consequences to ourselves and to the
world of a partial exhaustion of our mines are
of an infinitely higher degree of uncertainty
than the event itself, and cannot be made the
subject of argument. But feeling as we must
do that they will be of an untoward character,
it is impossible to close without a few further
remarks upon the truly solemn question — Are
we wise in allowing the commerce of this country
to rise beyond the point at which we can long
maintain it ?

To say the simple truth, will it not appear
evident, soon after the final adoption of Eree

Concluding Reflections.

371

Trade principles, that our own resources are just
those to which such principles ought to be applied
last and most cautiously ? To part in trade with
the surplus yearly interest of the soil may he
unalloyed gain, but to disperse so lavishly the
cream of our mineral wealth is to be spend-
thrifts of our capital — to part with that which
will never come back.

An d after all commerce is but a means to an
end, the diffusion of civilization and wealth. To
allow commerce to proceed until the source of
civilization is weakened and overturned is like
killing the goose to get the golden egg. Is the
immediate creation of material wealth to be our
only object ? Have we not hereditary posses-
sions in our just laws, our free and nobly de-
veloped constitution, our rich literature and
philosophy, incomparably above material wealth,
and which we are beyond all things bound to
maintain, improve, and hand down in safety ?
And do we accomplish this duty in encouraging
a growth of industry which must prove unstable,
and perhaps involve all things in its fall ?

But the more there is said on the one side of
this perplexing question, the more there is to say
on the other side. We can hardly separate the
attributes and performances of a kingdom, and

b b 2

372

The Coal Question.

have some without the others. The resplendent
genius of our Elizabethan age might never have
been manifested but in a period equally con-
spicuous for good order, industrial progress, and
general enterprise. The early Hanoverian period,
on the other hand, was as devoid of nobility as
it was stationary in wealth and population. A
clear and vigorous mind is to be looked for in a
wholesome state of the body. So in our Victorian
age we may owe indirectly to the lavish expen-
diture of our material energy far more than we
can readily conceive. No part, no function of a
nation is independent of the rest, and in fear-
lessly following our instincts of rapid growth we
may rear a fabric of varied civilization, we may
develop talents and virtues, and propagate influ-
ences which could not have resulted from slow
restricted growth however prolonged.

The wish surely could never rise into the mind
of any Englishman that Britain should be sta-
tionary and lasting as she was, rather than of
growing and world-wide influence as she is. To
secure a safe smallness we should have to go
back, and strangle in their birth those thoughts
and inventions which redeemed us from dulness
and degeneration a century ago. Could we
desire that Savery and Newcomen had aban-

Concluding Reflections.

373

doned their tiresome engines, that Darby had
slept before the iron ran forth, that the Duke
had broken before Brindley completed his canal,
that Watt had kept to his compasses and rules,
or Adam Smith burnt his manuscript in despair ?
Such experiments could not have succeeded, and
such writings been published, among a free and
active people in our circumstances, without lead-
ing to the changes that have been. Thence
necessarily came the growth of manufactures and
of people ; thence the inexplicable power with
which we fought and saved the Continent ;
thence the initiation of a Prec-trade policy by
Pitt, the growth of a middle class, and the rise
of a series of statesmen — Canning, Huskisson,
Peel, Cobden, and Gladstone— to represent their
views and powers.

Our new industry and civilization had an
obscure and unregarded commencement ; it is
great already, and will be far greater yet before
it is less. It is questionable rvliether a country
in any sense free can suffer such a grand move-
ment to begin without suffering it to proceed its
own length. One invention, one art, one develop-
ment of commerce, one amelioration of society
follows another almost as effect follows cause.
And it is well that our beneficial influence is not

374

The Coal Question.

bounded by our narrow wisdom or our selfish
desires. Let us stretch our knowledge and our
foresight to the furthest, yet we act by powers
and towards ends of which we are scarcely
conscious.

In our contributions to the arts, for instance,
we have unintentionally done a work that will
endure for ever. In whatever part of the world
fuel exists, whether wood, or peat, or coal, we
have rendered it the possible basis of a new
civilization. In the ancient mythology, fire was
a stolen gift from heaven, but it is our country-
men who have shown the powers of fire, and con-
ferred a second Promethean gift upon the world.
Without undue self-gratulation, may we not say
in the words of Bacon ? — “ The introduction of
new inventions seemeth to be the very chief of
all human actions. The benefits of new inven-
tions may extend to all mankind universally,
but the good of political achievements can respect
but some particular cantons of men ; these latter
do not endure above a few ages, the former for
ever. Inventions make all men happy without
either injury or damage to any one single
person. Furthermore, new inventions are, as it
were, new erections and imitations of God’s own
works.”

Concluding Reflections.

375

When our great spring is here run down, our
fires half burnt out, may we not look for an in-
creasing flame of civilization elsewhere ? Ours
are not the only stores of fuel. Britain may
contract to her former littleness, and her people
be again distinguished for homely and hardy
virtues, for a clear intellect and a regard for law,
rather than for brilliancy and power. But our
name and race, our language, history, and litera-
ture, our love of freedom and our instincts of
self-government, will live in a world-wide sphere.
We have already planted the stocks of multiply-
ing nations in most parts of the earth, and, in
spite of discouraging tendencies, it is hardly
for us to doubt that they will prove a noble
offspring.

The alternatives before us are simple. Our
empire and race already comprise one-fifth of the
world’s population ; and by our plantation of new
states, by our guardianship of the seas, by our'
penetrating commerce, by the example of our
just laws and firm constitution, and above all by
the dissemination of our new arts, we stimulate
the progress of mankind in a degree not to be
measured. If we lavishly and boldly push for-
ward in the creation and distribution of our
riches, it is hard to over-estimate the pitch of

376

The Coal Question.

beneficial influence to which we may attain in
the present. Bu t the maintenance of such a posi-
tion is physically impossible. We have to make
the momentous choice between brief greatness and
longer continued mediocrity.

INDEX.

INDEX.

A.

Age of emigrants, 202.

Agriculture, change in, 213 ;
exhaustive, 343.

Agricultural population, 185 ;
decrease of, 215 ; implement
proprietors, 215.

Air engine, 131 .

America, North, coal trade,
210 ; coalfields, 280, 2m

Arithmetic rate of increase,
218.

Armstrong, Sir W., Address to
British Association, 31 ; hy-
draulic apparatus, 1 57.

Austen-Godwin, Mr., quoted,
49.

B.

Babbage, quoted, 143, 168.

Bacon, Francis and Roger, 86,
81.

Ballast, coal as, 253, 259 ;
freights, 276, 284 ; wharves
on Tyne, 258.

Balloons, 149.

Beaumont, inventor of railway,
107.

Bessemer steel, 114, 317, 325.

Birmingham, artisans at, 103.

“ Blaekmine ” coal seam, 84.

Bridgewater, Duke of, 106 :
Canal, 118,

British industry, two periods
of, 207.

Buckland, Dr., 1_6, 354.

C.

Canada, devoid of coal, 289.

Canals, 106, 254.

Cargo, preponderance of home-
ward, 261.

Caus, Isaac de, 1 00 ; Solomon de,
99.

Charcoal iron manufacture,
299 .

Coal, importance of, 1 ; pro-
duce in theUnited Kingdom,
234 ; resources of different
countries, 219 ; rate of in-
crease of consumption, 236 ;
raised in France, 287 ; ex-
port duty, 355 ; estimates
of coal produced, 232, 236.

Coalbrookdale, coalfield, 26 ;
works, 108, 155, 313 ; en-
gine at, 114.

Coal-cutting machine, 64, 72,

Coal-fields, Fifeshire, 16 ; con-
tents of British, 24 ; Flint-
shire, 26 ; Staffordshire, 21 ;
beneath cretaceous forma-
tion, 49 ; undiscovered, 51 ;
Foreign, 281. 284 ; French,
282, 285; Belgian, 286, 288;
Nova Scotia, 29_Q ; Missis-
sippi, 290; Appalachian, 291 .

Coal miners, 244.

Coal ports, freights to, 270.

Coal tax, impolicy of, 361.

Coal trade, reciprocal, 255.

Coasting trade, 256,

Coke, invention of, 31 L

380

Index.

Collier, meaning of name, 299

Collier fleet of Newcastle, 271

Collieries, number of, 245.

Colliery, Staff of a, 62.

Colonization, 194, 340,

Commercial revolution, 296,

Competition in foreign trade,
334.

Consumption of coal, 173, 238.

Cornish engines, duty of, 128 ;
supply of coal, 256.

Corn, trade, 209 — 212 ; laws,
209, 212, 225 ; repeal of,
173.

Cost of getting coal, average,
82.

Cotton, trade, 208 • imports,

222 .

D.

Darby, Abraham, 112, 312 —
314.

Dee, River, power of tides, 159.

Domestic consumption of coal,
123.

Dowlais ironworks, 145.

Drainage of mines, 65, 98,

Dudley, Dud, quoted, 77 ; iron
made by, 310.

Dukinfield Deep Pit, 58, 83.

Dundonald, Earl of, on salt
trade, 2 62.

Duration of Northern coal-
fields, estimates, 18.

Dutch, in England, 92 ; trade,
94 ; manufactures, 96 ; ma-
nufacture of iron, 310, 312 ;
workmen, 31 3.

E.

Earthenware trade, 264.
Ebbw Yale ironworks,, 220.
Electricity, 149, 168.
Electro-magnetic engine, 1 60.

Emigration, 194-6, 200, 338,
34L

English coal-fields, 283, 286,

Ericsson’s engine, 1 31 .

Esparto grass, trade in, 269.

Exports, declared value, 1801-
1865, 225 ; of coal, 252 ;
policy of, 273.

Export duty, policy of, 355 ■
instances of, 356 ; influence
on freights, 357.

F.

Flemings, 94, 95.

Foot-blast, 300.

Force, 141 ; in coal, 165.

Forest of Dean, 306.

Forests, source of fuel, 14L3.

France, manufactures, 96,

Free trade, 247, 330, 349, 352 ,
370.

Freight, rates of, 253 , 265, 270.

Ct.

Gas, 112 ; tax on, 362.

Geometrical ratio, growth in,
242.

German metallurgists, 319.

Grimsby, Port of, 265.

Guano trade, 2G8.

Gunpowder, use in blasting,
90.

II.

Haswell Pitt, sinking aban-
doned, 68,

Hearn’s Plutology, 148.

Heat, source of, 161.

Herring fishery, 93.

Hogge, Ralph, Sussex iron-
master, 91,

Holland, John, History of Fos-
sil Fuel, 20.

Ilotblast iron furnace, 1 34,
316,

Index.

381

Hot springs of Ischia, 168.

Houghton, John, quoted, 340.

Hull, Edward, quoted, 23 — 31,
57, 69.

Hutton seam, 68, 88.

Hydrogen gas, 162.

L

Ice machine, 120.

Iceland, hot springs of, 168.

Immigration into United
States, 26L

Imports, official values, 223 ;
real values, 224 ; continen-
tal iron, 368.

International trade, 333 .

Inventions, 175 ; history of, 85 ;
conditions of, 97 ; Bacon on,
374.

Ireland, devoid of coal, 1719 ;
policy, 180 ; absence of
manufactures, 249 ; former
production of iron, 305-6.

Iron, bridges, 112 ; used in
machinery, 113 ; substitu-
tion of iron for wood, 114 ;
wrought iron substituted for
cast, 114 ; steam vessels,
117 ; production of iron,
217 ; export of pig, 219 ;
importance, 297 ; in 1740,
807 ; made with pit coal,
309 ; increase of produce,
314 ; iu Scotland, 317 ;
manufacture, conditions of,
319 ; supply from distance,
321 ; ore carried to fuel,
323 ; in 1862, 324 ; quality
of, 324 ; boundless use of,
325 ; in America, 326-9.

J.

Jessop, William, 109.

Jocteleg, or jack-a-leg’s knife,
94.

K.

Kaltoff, Marquis of Worcester’s
servant, 101.

Katrine water-mills, 151.

L.

Labelye, Swiss architect, 92.
Lardner, Dr., on discovery, 138.
Lee, William, inventor of knit-
ting frame, 88-
Legacy duty, 365.

Liverpool, Port of, 226 ; ex-
port trade, 264.

Locke, remark on iron, 116.
Lombard merchants, 95.
London, coal imported, 232.

M.

Machine tools, 115.

Magnesian limestone, 66,

Malthus, law of population,
170.

Manufacturing population, 191.

Maritime enterprise, 93.

Marriage rate, 197 — 200.

Metallurgy, 90.

Migration into towns, 189.

Mill, J. 8., on international
trade, 334 ; on Protection,
356.

Mineral statistics, 238.

Monkwearmouth Pit, 88 ; tem-
perature in, 58.

Morrill tariff, 348, 352 .

N.

National Debt, 365.

Neilson, discoverer of hot-blast,
316.

Newcomen’s engine, 126.
Norden, , Surveyor’s Dialogue,
361.

382

Index.

P.

Packhorse conveyance, 254.

Papin, Denis, 103, 152.

Pauperism, cost of, 186.

Peat, 1 63.

Permian formation, 66,

Petroleum, 1 64.

Pit-coal, 303.

Pitt’s proposed tax on coal, 3 50 .

Pittsburg, coal-seam, 292 ; steel
manufacture, 329.

Population, law of, 170-3 ; of
England and Wales, 182 ;
increase of, L83 ; of manu-
facturing counties, 185 ; of
agricultural counties, 185 ;
Scotch highlands, 188; Scotch
manufacturing counties, L89 ;
decrease of agricultural, 215.

Potteries, situation of, 203 .

Price of coal, shipped at New-
castle, 79 j in 1860, Mr.
Hunt, 82 ; in Manchester,
107 ; in London, 194 ; in
different countries, 251 ; at
Pittsburg, 293-4 ; reduced
by steam-engine, 105 .

Progress, when uniform, 169 — ■
171.

Prohibition of export of ma-
chinery, 88 ; of export of
coal, 274.

Protection, 530-1.

Proximity of fuel and iron ore,
319.

K.

Railways, 107 ; converge on
coal-fields, 110; influence on
iron manufactures, 328.

Rate of progress, 217.

Restrictions on coal trade, 363.

Reversal of trades, 119, 247.

Roads, 105.

Rogers, Professor, estimate of
coal-fields, 280.

S.

Safety-lamp, 65.

Salt trade, reversed, 119 ; of
Liverpool, 262.

Savery, Thomas, 101, 155.

Scotland, its population, 181.

Screening of coal, 8L

Sea-coal, 299, 303.

Shipment of coal, 284 .

Shipping, tonnage entering and
clearing, 227.

Siemens’ regenerative furnace,

1 35.

Slitting-mill, 91.

Staffordshire, South, coal-field,
27; price of “thick” coal,
76 , iron manufacture, 321.

Steam communication, 145 ;
colliers, 146.

Steam-engine, 97, 154 ; ex-
ported, 104 ; effect on mines,
104 ; history of, 125 ; im-
provement of, 127, 129 ; used
to increase water-power, 314.

Steam plough, 1 33.

Steam-power, 1 56.

Steam vessels, tonnage of Bri-
tish, 228 ; maintained on
British coal, 277.

Steel, substitution for iron, 318;
made at Pittsburg, 329 ; Bes-
semer, 144, 317, 325.

Stephenson, George, 109, 111.

Sterling’s air-engine, 18L

Stevin, Simon, wind-waggon.
147.

Sturtevant, 88, 310.

Substitution of commodities,
118.

Sulphur, sources of, 120.

Sussex ironworks, 301 .

Index..

383

Swansea, copper smelting, 256.

Sydney Harbour, coal at, 290.

T.

Tax on coal, 359.

Temperature of mines, 58.

Tidal mills, 158.

Timber, as fuel, 162 ; destruc-
tion of, 304 ; quantity im-
ported, 221.

Transport of coal, 250, 282.

IT.

United States, immigration,
201 ; resources, 294 ; popu-
lation, 344.

Utilization of waste beat, 135.

V.

Vend, limitation of, 80; from
Newcastle, 231.

Ventilation of coal mines, 65.

Vivian, H. H., on South Wales
coal-field, 52.

W.

Wages, high in America, 328.

Wales, South, coal-field, 51.

Wallsend coal, prices, 83.

Waste of coal, 234, 239.

Water, accumulation in Per-
mian and New Red Sand-
stone rocks, 67 ; power, 104,
150-156; supply pipes, 112.

Welds of Sussex, 303, 309.

Whitaker, quoted, 50.

Wind-mills, 144, 158.

Wind- waggons, 147.

Wool trade, 207.

Worcester, Marquis of, 100,
154.

Y.

Yarranton, quoted, 91, 97, 106.

THE ENT).

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, 1866 Coal. , guest ion